PENNDALE PANTRY HELPS FAMILIES IN NEED
Students, teachers help collect food for families at middle school
Dozens of families in the Lansdale area will have more on their tables this Christmas, thanks to a food drive and pantry that’s been run over the past month at Penndale Middle School.
“I don’t know what it’s like not to have a lot of food, but I know a lot of people struggle with food, especially this time of year. It’s good to have extra food, and to help people wherever you can,” said Penndale ninth-grader Connor Niszczak.
On Thursday afternoon, Niszczak, eighth and ninth grade history teacher Deanna Bratina, guidance attendance secretary Kim Moore and assistant principal Jason Bashaw wrote thank-you notes to dozens of Penndale teachers, family, and other staff who have helped put together the school’s new food pantry.
In early November, Bratina’s classes started holding a competition to gather nonperishable food items to stock the food pantry, which students and staff started planning at the beginning of the current school year. The history classes ended up collecting over 5,600 food items to donate to families in need, and Niszczak then picked up the project and expanded it to the entire school in early December.
“I went around one day a couple of weeks ago collecting each box, and every other day for about a week and a half I would check each room, and we had about 400 (more donations), so about 6,000 total items,” Niszczak said.
The top three classes each received a reward made personally by Niszczak, who said he has always been interested in baking, cooking and food science.
“I made brownies for those three, and they were pretty good,” Niszczak said, and Bratina clarified — “they were the best brownies, hands down, I’ve ever had in my life.”
Through November and the first half of December, Niszczak publicized the food drive by posting fliers and collection boxes throughout the school, made a morning announcement on the school’s loudspeakers, asked for donations from local businesses and charities, and kept a count of everything received. Over the past two weeks, as Niszczak moved the donated items from classrooms to a food pantry and collection area on the school’s ground floor, nearly three dozen Penndale teachers helped by staying after school to organize the donations, and sort them into identical bags, trays, and boxes for local families.
“We had 35 teachers volunteer their time after school, and it was just great to see teachers talk to teachers they don’t nor-
mally get a chance to talk to. Last night, when everyone was here, we packed all of the boxes, and got it done,” said Bashaw, showing photos of tables and hallways full of donated water and food.
This week, local families in need have come into the school during afternoon or evening hours (kept separate from students to maintain privacy) and collected boxes and bags of donated food, just in time for Christmas.
“There’s 50 more families out there in the community who have food in their cupboards, that wouldn’t if we hadn’t done this. It’s 50 more families than if we didn’t do anything,” Moore said.
“It’s been just an outpouring of people. When they know there’s a Penndale family in need, there’s an outpouring of generosity, always,” Bratina said.
A storage area in the school’s ground floor that had been used to keep school merchandise for sale has now been converted to a permanent ‘Care and Share’ pantry, where what’s left of the donated food is stored besides donated coats, blankets, clothes, and other essentials for families to come and take what they need.
“Our demographics are changing, and we know there’s a need in this building. Hence, the care and share, and hence the food pantry. We are learning from this,” Bashaw said.
Families of school students can come in to collect donated items through Saturday, and once the holiday food pantry is finished, staff will discuss ways to apply the lessons they have learned to other, similar drives and donations they’ve already started discussing for spring. Bashaw said the success of the food drive and an earlier effort where students and staff brought in clothes to share in November have been inspirational and heartwarming.
“This is all new to us. We didn’t know what it would look like that Saturday, and we had 21 families that day. It was really exciting — we had racks of stuff, and the whole gym was filled with girls’ and boys’ jackets, coats, toiletries, shoes, hats, scarves, mittens, things like that,” he said.
The ‘Care and Share’ dates led him to think about expanding the food pantry donation drive, Niszczak said, and he’s already thinking about what it would take to try a similar donation drive at North Penn High School when he starts there next year.
“It’s three times more
people next year, so it could be even more successful... but that would be a lot more work,” he said.
Niszczak thanked his family, staff and students who helped out, and parents and local groups who made
donations, and said two deserve particular praise: Bridge Community Church for donating roughly 200 pounds of sausage, and parent Patrick Clugston who donated dozens of boxed fruit cakes. What did Niszczak learn from the project?
“Make sure you don’t try to rush it. We started the week before Halloween, so we had two months to set it
up and then advertise. Make sure you have enough time, and be repetitive: make sure people know about it,” he said.
How does it feel to have helped so many families?
“It’s a good feeling, knowing that they might not have had any food, or much less food, without our help. It feels good to help people,” Niszczak said.#