Students at Notre Dame Academy collected more than 17,000 canned food in November, breaking the school's historical record. 

The students collected 17,394 pieces of canned food, breaking the record of 1,644 pieces collected when the canned food activity was established in 2010. 

The school said on Tuesday that in the past 12 years, Notre Dame Academy students have collected 108,080 canned food items that have been donated to St. Vincent de Paul Food Pantry in Northern Kentucky.

The students celebrate their record by gathering at the NDA's annual Thanksgiving prayer service. They were also fired early on Tuesday. 

This annual service activity began when the leaders of the University of Notre Dame student union visited the local St. Vincent de Paul food storage room and saw several empty shelves. The school stated that the students were very worried that those in need would have no food in the winter, so they took action and organized a canned food event.  

They quickly realized that by challenging students from another high school, they could have twice the impact on the less fortunate people in the community, so they invited Covington Catholic High School to participate in the "Canned Food War".

That year, Pandas collected 15,750 kinds of canned food, "canned food for the colonel."  

Over the years, the University of Notre Dame Student Union has changed its annual canned food event. This year, they motivate students to participate through non-uniform days and weekly gift baskets. For several years, they repeated the canned food challenge to the Covington Catholics and other years. Just like this year, the panda challenged the Saint Henry Crusade.

St. Henry introduced more canned foods and won this year's canned food war.  

"Not only do we congratulate our friends in St. Henry for collecting an amazing amount of canned food, but we also thank them for participating and helping us change the lives of those in need this winter," NDA President/Interim President Jack VonHandorf . "When our energetic parish students work for the common good, everyone is a winner."