“Packing It Up for Pizza Food Drive”

Students and staff at the Newburgh Enlarged City School District’s Temple Hill Academy collected a record amount of 4,577 items of non-perishable food during their recent “Packing It Up for Pizza Food Drive” for Mary’s Hope Food Pantry. Each morning students collected food donations, counted the contributions, kept class tallies, and sorted and packed the items. Staff members from the Newburgh Home Depot volunteered their time to pick up the food donations and deliver them to the pantry. Pizza Mia and Pizza Heaven donated pizzas to the top two classes: Ms. Higgins 4th grade class which collected 708 items, and Mrs. Copertino’s 6th grade class which collected 626. All 4th and 6th grade classes combined collected 3,092 items.

“In the weeks prior to the food drive, I taught a set of lessons on community helpers and volunteerism,” said academic specialist and food drive coordinator Charles Byrne. “Helping students to understand that you’re never too young to get involved in helping the community is an important lesson to learn. This was a total community effort,” said Byrne.

Pictured above, Temple Hill Academy students display some of the 4,577 items of food they collected during their recent “Packing It Up for Pizza Food Drive” for Mary’s Hope Food Pantry in Newburgh.