Millburn's elementary school families and school district staff donated 140 boxes of food in the annual Thanksgiving Food Drive sponsored by the Community Outreach Committee of the Millburn-Short Hills Conference of Parents and Teachers.

The program is coordinated with the assistance of the Millburn-Short Hills Chapter of the American Red Cross, the Millburn Fire Department and the Millburn Board of Education.

Fifty-five township families received donations of 89 ShopRite turkeys, a cornucopia of Thanksgiving staples, and $2,670 in cash (each student was requested to send in $2) that was used to purchase ShopRite gift cards for each family. 

Members of the Millburn Fire Department volunteered to deliver the boxes to each family. This year's drive was so successful 37 additional boxes of much-needed food were delivered to the Red Cross to help stock the food pantry with provisions for the upcoming winter.

The community also donated 30 enormous boxes full of leftover Halloween candy that was sent to Operation Shoebox NJ for U.S troops deployed overseas.

The Community Outreach Committee is chaired by Lynn Linczyc, and is made up of representatives from each of the five district elementary schools:  Robin Eichler, Wendy Marcus, Stacy Nadell, Cathy Levison, Victoria Haas, Marcia Hicks, Jennifer Barry, Ann Marie Petrocelli, Lori Katzman and Rebecca Escobar.

The Committee thanks ShopRite in Millburn for their assistance with the purchase of gift cards as well as allowing school families to assign their Price Plus free turkeys to the recipients; Captain Jim Boyle for coordinating the delivery effort along with volunteers from the Fire Department; school district custodial staff for picking up the boxes from the school and delivering the candy; Barbara Allora and Annette Romano of The American Red Cross for coordinating the confidential list of township families in need, and all of the student and families who donated food and money and helped make so many families holidays a little brighter.