Thursday, September 24, 2015
Taft Elementary school Students collect food donations
By Denise Dick
YOUNGSTOWN
Taft Elementary School students are getting a lesson in giving.
A “giving tree” in the school’s front hallway, outside the library, is decorated with paper leaves bearing students’ names.
Each child gets one of the leaves when they bring in a nonperishable food item for Second Harvest Food Bank.
“I’m working on my fifth box,” said Rachel Mitchell, the school’s librarian.
The drive runs through Oct. 1.
“They collected 427 pounds for the first half of the month and that’s a lot,” said Michael Iberis, the food bank’s executive director. “For an elementary school, that’s significant.”
By the time the school has completed its drive, students potentially could donate 1,000 pounds, he said.
“We appreciate Taft stepping up to the plate,” Iberis said. “I think what’s most significant is the students at Taft are committed to helping people who are hungry.”
The food they’re donating will make a difference, he added.
Mitchell has conducted the food drive at each school where she’s worked.
At Taft, any fines for missing library items may be forgiven for students who bring in food items. For every three items they donate, the record for a missing library item is eliminated.
“Those fines follow them all the way through 12th grade,” Mitchell said. “It can keep them from graduating if they don’t pay or they can’t find the item.”
The class that brings the most items will get a pizza party and male and female students who bring in the most each will get a prize.
So far, Ronald Fernandez, 8, and a fourth-grader, is leading the school with about 60 items donated.
He stuck three leaves on the tree Wednesday morning.
It’s for “the poor people,” Ronald explained. “If we don’t give them food, they will die.”
The “giving tree” theme was inspired by Shel Silverstein’s “The Giving Tree” about a tree who gives everything it has to a boy and never asks for anything in return.
The food drive teaches the students about giving and taking care of others, Mitchell said.
“The pizza party is just an incentive,” she said. “The pizza party is a nice thing, but for the most part, they don’t even need an incentive.”