Students at Bothell’s Westhill Elementary are learning at a young age that little things mean a lot — especially when the little things are pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters, and the coins will be used to feed hungry kids on summer break.

The Northshore School District students held their annual End Summer Hunger coin drive for Hopelink earlier this month (May 7-11), raising $1,016.93 in the five-day drive.

Hopelink’s End Summer Hunger fund and food drives — taking place now through August — bring together local businesses, organizations, schools and individuals to help provide low-income families with food for kids who receive free and reduced-fee breakfasts and lunches during the school year.

The campaign bridges the gap in regular healthy daytime meals when kids are not in school and the subsidized programs are not available. This year, nearly 16,000 children in north and east King County will risk going hungry when the bell rings for summer vacation.

At Westhill Elementary, the campaign began every morning at 8:45 a.m., when mom and PTA member Danielle Macdonald set up a chair in front of the school and students took turns holding End Summer Hunger posters to remind those rounding the circular drive to drop off their coins.

Hopelink provided small brown paper lunch bags for students to take home and fill with spare change from family, friends, and neighbors, and every morning, the students filled the jar with coins.

“Let me hear the clink, clink, clink!” Macdonald would say as the students emptied their bags.

When the bell rang and classes began, Macdonald dashed off to the local Coinstar machine to tally that day’s take, and then ran back to the school with her morning announcement:

“Today’s coin collection brought in 1,504 pennies, 260 nickels, 357 dimes, and 536 quarters for Hopelink,” Macdonald said. “Great job everyone! Remember to bring more coins tomorrow!”

By week’s end, the students had raised enough money to feed nearly 100 kids on summer break for a week.

The proceeds from End Summer Hunger will stock Hopelink’s five food banks for the high-demand demand summer months. In 2011, the End Summer Hunger campaign raised more than $180,000 in addition to thousands of pounds of food that benefited hundreds of families.