Kevin Reeves’22 and Dorothy Dell at Work on Food Drive (Courtesy/Christy Bening)

Many communities have food and clothing drives. But few schools have a food and clothing drive that serves as an opportunity for students to learn using the items that are collected before being shipping to meet need in the greater community.

Thanks to parent Tricia Seline, PACA Service Chair, and Dorothy Dell, Service Dept. Food Drive Coordinator, a well-integrated set of activities, using the food and clothing donations, allow students across the divisions to learn about family needs, how to provide equitably and thoughtfully, and how to process an abundance of donations so donations are ready for immediate distribution once they arrive at the agencies.

Three years ago, Seline volunteered to serve as the PACA Service Chair. A former lower school teacher, Seline brought a new set of ideas and practices that made the clothing drive more approachable for all students. She devised plans to create a well-defined selection process that would allow students to use their abilities and talents to help the members of our Childhood League and our Siebert Elementary-sponsored families. Examples include blanket making, scheduled classroom shopping times, a reorganization of the way donated items were gathered, and a shift toward the collection of winter clothing only. By making these changes, families would get a more consistent set of items that would meet their needs in the winter months. The amount of time, energy, and thought she has committed has transformed the drive into a two-week event that produces a positive learning experience for CA students and generous set of gifts for our 32 sponsored families.

Dell has managed the food drive for the past fifteen years. Her creative ideas regarding how to use the donated food as a teaching tool to instruct students about nutrition, healthy eating habits, and the needs of a family have been an annual success. One result includes incorporating the 6th and 7th graders in food drive activities. Sixth-graders create the food drive “store.” They check donated items to make sure that are suitable (dent friend unexpired) for donation. Using the demographics of our sponsored families provided by agencies, Dell works 7th graders to show them how to provide a week’s worth (sometimes two) of food for each family’s pantry. Allergies, special needs, age-friendly foods, number and age of family members are all considered when assembling the pantry items.

Once the items are selected, Dell and her family , US Learning Styles Specialist, Katy Frickel, and her children, package each family’s items so they can be delivered. Then they pack up all the non-selected items for pick up by the Brookwood Food Pantry located at James and Livingston Ave. Certainly this is a lot of work!, but what is astonishing is that Dell and the Frickels complete all this in one weekend! When the food drive ends, Dell and her team begin the packing process. Our 32 sponsored families and the food pantry need the items before Thanksgiving. Having all donations sorted, checked, and ready for distribution means they get to those in need more quickly and that the quality of what they receive is greater.

This service learning project engages all students’ level of involvement in the many activities and teaches students how to develop a habit of service that benefits so many people, today, tomorrow, and in the future.