COLUMBIA (WACH) -- Keep the Midlands Beautiful kicks of pilot program with help from Walmart.

Representatives of Keep the Midlands Beautiful gathered today at Hyatt Park Elementary School in Columbia to kick off the  pilot for a new program called Litter-acy Lessons.

The program is targeted at elementary children to engage them in both litter prevention and literacy education. 

Litter-acy Lessons is being funded with a $25,000 grant from the Walmart Foundation's State Giving Program. 

"We are very excited to extend our litter prevention programming to elementary school children," said Heidi Johnson, Executive Director of Keep the Midlands Beautiful.

"We are thankful for the financial support of Walmart for enabling us to offer Litter-acy Lessons, which will help students in the Midlands to build literacy and science skills while becoming involved members of the community."

Litter-acy Lessons involves both teachers and students and incorporates classroom education and action through reading and writing informational texts related to litter and the environment.

Teachers will learn methods for teaching reading and writing strategies across content areas. Students will take part in classroom lessons about the problem of litter and will engage with a range of texts that address the issue of littering, proper waste disposal and recycling.