PIE students help feed the hungry
Once again the youngsters from Pine Island Elementary School had their School Food Collection in November to benefit the Pine Island Food Pantry. This special food drive came just in time for the Pantry’s busy season of Thanksgiving distribution.
The children’s collection helped pantry volunteers serve 132 families in the month of November. Those 132 families totaled 398 adults, seniors and children. Over and above the monthly number of 132, the pantry also provided special food bags with items to help prepare a Thanksgiving meal, along with a turkey, ham, roaster hens or gift certificate for a meat of their choice at Winn-Dixie, for another 95 families.
“This is one of my favorite food drives. There is nothing like the excitement generated by these youngsters,” Food Pantry Treasurer Barb La Plante said. “Happy youngsters doing for others. I think I said this last year, it’s so wonderful to see young people learning to care and share about and with others.”
According to La Plante, with the help of PIE fifth-grade teacher Tina Garris, each year the students in her class do the majority of the work collecting non-perishable food items for the island pantry. This year, 282 students at the school collected 1,630 cans of food, which equals about six cans per student which La Plante feels is an “astounding accomplishment.” Garris, along with the staff at Pine Island Elementary School, have been running the annual holiday food drive at the school for approximately 10 years.
“Originally, the food collected at the school would go to the Salvation Army,” La Plante said. “Later it was decided to do the collection as a school sponsored program and keep all the food that was collected here on the island for the people of Pine Island, Matlacha and the Isles.”
In addition to collecting the food, Garris’ students also delivered their donations to the pantry, kept a tally of what was collected and helped pantry volunteers to haul and load the donations at the pantry.
“I would like to express my sincerest thanks to the children and staff at Pine Island Elementary school for all their hard work as well as all those who contributed to this year’s food drive,” La Plante said.
The Pine Island Food Pantry serves those in need on Pine Island and Matlacha and is located at the Miraculous Medal Catholic Church in Bokeelia. Pantry is open Monday and Thursday from 9-11 a.m. Those in need of emergency assistance with food are asked to call 246-0039. Those who would like to make a donation to the food pantry can drop off non-perishable items at the Pine Island Winn-Dixie, the Matlacha Post Office, Southwest Capital Bank, Edward Jones at the Century 21 building, the Pine Island VFW and the Pine Island American Legion.