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St. Christine students feed families in need
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Neighbors | Sarah Foor .During their holiday food drive, St. Christine classrooms each collected goods to donate to needy families. The students in each class considered their own traditions and offered them in their donated food items. The entire school participated, including students Kate Creighton (left, kneeling), Daniel McClelland, Jack Bishop, Patrick Scott, Ashley Fabry, Anthony Ellinos (left, standing). Reese Lucia, Gia DiFabio, Lindsay Bell, Christopher Gilbert, Alisa Telega, and Sering Limbu.
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Neighbors | Sarah Foor .Some of the older students who participated in the food drive at St. Christine School acted as the muscle during collection times and helped carry the goods to a central location. Some of the older helpers were, from left, Steven Hripko (left), Anthony Potesta, Ryan Stefanec, Angelina Savich, Jamie Gilliland, and Andrew Philibin.
By SARAH FOOR
During the holidays, the staff and students at St. Christine School are passionate about providing for those less fortunate. However, director of religious education Colleen Boyle wants the students at the school to be more involved in their giving.
“Although donating food to the St. Vincent De Paul Society has always been a part of what we do, we wanted to make the program more real for the students,” Boyle said.
During the holidays, each class at the school is given the responsibility for feeding a family. The children are told to think about their own holiday traditions and how they’d like to recreate those traditions for their “adopted” family.
Each class provides nonperishable goods, as well as fresh foods for the basket provided by St. Christine Church. The classes give some guidelines for the recipes they’d like their family to try out. Some classes go so far as to provide tablecloths, plates, cups and cutlery. The students also respect the traditions of their families by providing a selection of gift cards for them to use to buy some of their own holiday favorites.
“I wanted the program to be more than just a canned good or a family getting some of our ‘extras.’ I wanted the children to give for a reason and really take a deeper look at who we’re giving to,” Boyle said of the program.