Elementary “Turkey Wars” Benefits Community Action Foodbank

By Jonathan Weaver

More than 4,150 canned food items will be on the tables of needy families during their Thanksgiving dinner Thursday thanks to a local elementary school.

In one week, that many cans were donated by Lenape Elementary School students in Manor Township.

School guidance counselor Ashleigh Wasson and Extended Day Kindergarten Teacher Jennifer Hill helped a half-dozen sixth-grade boys put the cans into boxes for Community Action pick-up Monday morning at the school and reflected on the “Turkey Wars” competition.

“They were excited about the competition against classrooms, but a lot of kids were talking more importantly about helping others – I heard lots of positive comments from students,” Wasson said. “From students to parents to staff, everybody really came in and got excited about how they could help with the food drive.”

Hill was part of the school-wide Positive Behavior Team that collaborated on the school effort during American Education Week. Formerly a second-grade teacher at Shannock Valley Elementary, she said this year was the first “Turkey Wars” at Lenape Elementary and praised students.

Two different levels of winners will receive an award for their donations. Mrs. Dillick’s sixth-grade class brought in 437 cans of food and Ms. Mottura’s second-graders brought in 240 cans.

“Our students that collected kept track of the individual classrooms by day and then we had an Excel file that did the math for us- showing us each individual classroom how much they had during the week and then the total for the whole school,” Wasson said.

Mrs. Zimmerman’s gifted students also coordinated the collection of donated food items and tallied daily totals.

Sixth-grader Aaron Dunbar of Kittanning brought in more than half of his class’ total – thanks in large part to his mother, Mary, and her coupon clipping skills.

“Wednesday, I brought in a box full of 12 and then I came in and told my mom, ‘Hey, our class is losing, so why don’t we just bring in more.’ She was like ‘Well, we have 70 in our pantry,’ Dunbar recollected. “I came in and told the kids I was bringing in a whole bunch, but I was told she brought in 218 and everybody started smiling at me.

I ended up bringing in 240.”

Instead of brother, Ralph, bringing in cans for his class, he allowed Aaron to take them in instead.

The Dunbar Family also helps needy families annually in other ways

Sixth-grader Jordan McCombs was not in Mrs. Dilick’s winning class, but felt like a winner each day when he collected cans from various fifth-and sixth grade classrooms.

“I think it’s nice that we could help out families for the holidays,” McCombs said. “This was a lot of stuff that will help out a lot of people.”

For each non-perishable food item donated, the class received a colored turkey feather for their classroom door – created by sixth-graders. Eventually, teachers had to use Post-It notes or make their own feathers, however.

“We ran out of feathers – we had 2,000 feathers made,” Wasson said.

Last week, teachers thanked the entire student body for their support and collaboration

Many of the other district elementary schools conducted food drives in their communities - including students that attend West Hills Intermediate in East Franklin Township.

Community Action Employees Ron Bennett and Roy Forester said this is the non-profits busiest time of the year.

“This is probably the most so far we’ve collected this year,” Forester said.

The men said they still have to pick up food from Kittanning and West Shamokin High Schools, Lenape Technical School in Manor Township and the Grace Christian School in West Kittanning.