Area food pantries recently received a helping hand from students at Medomak Middle School in the form of a student-led food drive.
Students lined the hallways of the school for the annual handoff of food to local pantries the afternoon of Nov. 18. Donated food items were passed from person to person from the top floor of the school to the ground level and out the school’s entrance to waiting vehicles.
According to the event’s organizer, Medomak Middle School Student Council adviser and seventh-grade teacher Glenda Robinson, students donated 1,400 items for this year’s food drive, exceeding the goal of 1,200 items set at the start of the effort six weeks ago.
Donations were collected once a week during the food drive.
Robinson said the school has exceeded its donation goal for the past two years.
Students from the school’s four homerooms broke into teams to compete for a prize of their choosing: first dismissal throughout the week following Thanksgiving break for the team with the most donations.
Donations gathered by students will go to food pantries in the RSU 40 towns: Friendship, Union, Waldoboro, Warren, and Washington.
Robinson described the event as a long-standing tradition that predates the current middle school and goes back to when area students attended A.D. Gray Middle School.
“We are really proud of what we have done here and we do it year after year,” Robinson said.
She said the donations come at a busy time of the year for food pantries and it is a nice way to assist them during the holiday season.
“The food pantries are always so grateful,” Robinson said.
Members of the middle school’s student council played an integral role in the organization of the food drive and helped deliver donations to the waiting vehicles during the relay.
The student council also raised money through concession sales during a Halloween dance. The money went toward the purchase of four Thanksgiving dinners for needy families in the area.
Robinson said the dinners are made available through Yellowfront Grocery in Damariscotta.
She also said the food drive is an opportunity to show students the value of helping others while exemplifying one of the school’s core values: service.
“I think it is really important for kids to understand that not everyone has what they need,” Robinson said.
