For some students in Evesham Township, it’s important for them to realize exactly what the holidays are all about. The Chesterbrook Academy in Evesham Township held a food drive at the school to help benefit the less fortunate and to teach their students the importance of helping the needy.
Students at the Chesterbrook Academy in Evesham Township helped gather enough food during the Thanksgiving season to donate more than 25 baskets to the Children’s Home in Mt. Holly, an organization that provide professional therapeutic and supportive services that help children and their families to become productive members of society.
Lisa Reese, principal of Chesterbrook Academy, said the school annually collects food for the children’s home. Each grade receives a type of food for donation — such as fruits, vegetables, and potatoes — to keep the donations varied.
“We always have our kids do a collection for the holiday season. This is the first time we’ve had our kindergartners actually separate the donated food though,” she said. “It really lets the kids know the values of helping others who are less fortunate in our community.”
The kindergartners in Donna Fauscette’s class helped their teacher separate the different donated foods into different categories to be put into individual baskets for the children’s home for Thanksgiving.
Senora Doe of Marlton said her class was getting to help children like themselves that are less fortunate.
“We’re helping other kids that don’t have as much as we do,” she said as she helped her table count the vegetable items they received.
Reese said at this age its important for children to realize that there are others in the community that may not have as much as them.
“For kids like this, they just simply tell their mothers or fathers that they’re hungry and they get something to each. For these kids they have dinner each night with their families,” Reese said. “But for other families it can be much harder to provide food for their children.”
The young kindergartners seemed to grasp the idea of what was happening and were taking to the event with enthusiasm. Cole Haas and his buddies at table number four eagerly counted the more than 70 cans of vegetables the class had received.
“Some kids might not have a lot, so we’re helping them on Thanksgiving,” he said with a grin.
The class put the baskets together and they were donated to the Children’s Home on Thanksgiving.
