Schools
Over 100 boxes of Food Donated Through Millburn Thanksgiving Food Drive
Families in the Millburn School District come together with school district staff to collect food through the annual drive.
Submitted by Nancy Dries
One-hundred twenty boxes of food were donated by Millburn’s elementary school families and school district staff in the annual Thanksgiving Food Drive sponsored by the Community Outreach Committee of the Millburn-Short Hills Conference of Parents and Teachers, and 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.
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The committee was overwhelmed by the generosity that will allow 59 township families to receive donations of 65 ShopRite turkeys, a cornucopia of Thanksgiving staples, and more than $3,000 in cash (each student was requested to send in $2) that was used to purchase ShopRite gift cards for each family.
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Members of the Millburn Fire Department volunteered to deliver the boxes to each family. This year’s drive was so successful that 10 additional boxes of much-needed food were delivered to the Red Cross to help stock their Food Pantry, now run out of St. Stephen’s Church on Main Street, with provisions for the upcoming winter.
The community also donated over 36 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 Jennifer Barry and Ann Marie Petrocelli, and is made up of representatives from each of the five district elementary schools: Kristin Sterling and Robin Eichler (Deerfield), Penina Barr (Glenwood), Anna Ayes, (Hartshorn), Rachel Greenberg (South Mountain) and Christel Hummert (Wyoming).
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 Christopher Beady 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; The American Red Cross for coordinating the confidential list of township families in need, and lastly all of the student and families who donated food and money and helped make the holidays a little brighter for so many of our township families.
