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CORTLANDT MANOR, N.Y. Fourteen 30-gallon Tupperware containers populated the guidance office of Blue Mountain Middle School, all overflowing with food donations gathered by the middle schools student government homerooms.
All of the food baskets will go to local families within the Hendrick Hudson School District. Soup, punch, green beans, brownie mix and apple pies rested in the Tupperware. Three whole refrigerators in the school were packed with bacon, eggs, milk and butter. Soon turkeys would have to be added as well to the larder.
I had no food in my homeroom on Friday, then on Monday I was so happy to see the pile of food, said sixth grade student, Danielle Smith. So much food streamed in on the last two days of the drive, Friday and Monday, that it will need to be donated to food banks.
I didnt know there was extra, said Maggie Bernstein, another sixth grade student charged with collecting food for her homeroom. The piles of food on the last two days of the drive came to the relief of the student government. I couldnt have been happier. It was so relieving because we were so behind schedule, she said.
Most surprising to the sixth grade students, who participated for the first time in the food drive, was the amount of need in their own neighborhoods. I was like, Im sure theyre shipping this away, to someplace really needy, said Melody Munitz. Munitz said she realized during the drive that her classmates could be her benefactors. I realized, This could be the person that needs the food, she said.
We had a lot of people that needed food, which was sad that so many people need this food, said Kane McKeever.
John Morotti, a guidance counselor at the school, will personally deliver all of the Thanksgiving baskets before the holiday. The school determined the number of baskets to put together after speaking with a local social worker.
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