With the giving season in full swing, The Medical Institute of Kentucky wanted to help improve the lives of its students and provide them with an opportunity to better themselves.

To accomplish this, The Medical Institute of Kentucky is hosting a food drive that will benefit the local food banks, according to employee Antoinette Goss.

Collection of food for this year’s food drive will be held at all nine of the Kentucky locations, which are located in Lexington, Shelbyville, Bowling Green, London, Owensboro, Florence, Elizabethtown, Hopkinsville, and Somerset. The institute’s Florida location in Fort Myers will also be collecting for this event.

Since the food drive is being held at a multitude of different locations around Kentucky and in Florida, it will not just benefit food banks here in Lexington but will benefit food banks statewide, Goss said.

The food drive that The Medical Institute of Kentucky puts on has had different variations over the years. In the past, all of the separate campuses around the state individually collected food or coats to give to food banks and homeless shelters, but Goss said this time around, the institution wanted to change things up.

“This year we wanted to set a goal between all nine of our Kentucky campuses as well as our campus in Florida,” Goss said. “With doing this, we are able to come together to create a bigger impact and help make others’ lives a little bit better.”

The Medical Institution of Kentucky wanted to extend this helping had to students’ communities to give others an opportunity to better themselves. That desire is one of the main reasons that sparked the collaboration with all of the campuses this year.

Any non-perishable food items are acceptable for the food drive. As of November 28, more 400 items had already been collected.

“Our main goal is to help the community, so if you can’t stop by one of our campuses feel free to go to your local food bank and donate to them directly,” Goss said.

The Lexington campus is located in Hamburg at 2720 Old Rosebud Road, Suite 230.

Donations are being accepted through Friday, Dec. 8.