By Munashe Kwangwari/WMBD

NORMAL – Starting in July, Heartland Community College students will be helping the Midwest Food Bank deliver food to those in need.

The food bank is teaming up with the college’s truck driving students to help give them hands on training by allowing them to use their equipment.

“One of our volunteers here took their training and did a great job,” said Mike Hoffman, Director of Operations at Midwest Food Bank. “He told us that one of things the program was missing was real life experience.”

For the first time in the program students will get to work exclusively with the loading docks and drive trucks full of cargo to businesses helping those in need. The school is excited to begin the partnership with Midwest and hopes to continue it in the future.

“They were looking for someone to help haul some of their goods over in the Morton, Peoria area,” said Angie Coughlin, Director of Continuing Education at Heartland. “We were looking for a site that we were able to use loading docks to help supplement our instruction for the truck driving program. It worked out, win win for everyone.”

The school says this program will improve student’s chances of getting a job in the future. This is the first time the Midwest Food Bank has entered into a partnership of this kind. Hoffman says if it goes well he plans to implement it in the other affiliated food banks across the nation.