Food drive helps people in students' community
Pine Brook School shows overwhelming support for local agency
BY KATHY BARATTA Staff Writer

MANALAPAN - The pupils in Briana Druckman's sixth-grade gifted and talented class at the Pine Brook School wanted to do something about hunger in the world.

While the children were trying to decide which global effort deserved their attention, Druckman suggested that they could accomplish their goal right here at home in Manalapan.

After careful consideration as to who should get their attention from among local food pantries, it was decided that the students would work to feed their neighbors.

Druckman's suggestion coupled with thoughtful preparation and dedication to the task the students set for themselves led to an unprecedented donation to the Samaritan Center, the food pantry that assists people inManalapan and Englishtown.

The entire month of February was dedicated to the spirit of giving as Druckman's students set out to motivate the entire school to gather canned goods for the Samaritan Center.

It didn't hurt the students' effort to know that the class, which collected the most canned goods would share a pizza party with Druckman's pupils. That honor ended up going to the children in Amy Schlissberg's fifth-grade class.

The hard work put forth by everyone at Pine Brook eventually resulted in the collection and donation of 3,446 canned goods to the Samaritan Center's food pantry.

ASamaritan Center spokesperson told the News Transcript, "We are trying to think of ways to help them because they did so much for us. We couldn't believe it, there were at least 60 huge boxes just crammed with cans. It was unbelievable."

Druckman said she was told the Samaritan Center helps 85 families in the community.

"I think that really brought it home for the students," the teacher said, adding that she came up with the idea for the food drive while her students were learning about world hunger and diseases that affect children.

Druckman said the holiday season had just ended and she was thinking about how wonderful it is that people are imbued with the spirit of giving during the holidays, but asked, "What about that time in between holidays?"

She said thinking about what people who need assistance do after the season of giving has ended is what led her to suggest that her pupils should organize a canned food drive.

"They enthusiastically embraced the idea," Druckman said, explaining that her students approached the project with a carefully prepared prospectus which they first presented to Principal Michael D'Anna and Assistant Principal John Spalthoff.

Druckman said both administrators were "really helpful and supportive in this project."

In addition to preparing a proposal and presenting it to D'Anna and Spalthoff, Druckman's students prepared speeches to present to every class in the school that included statistics about hunger in the world.

PowerPoint presentations and bulletin boards kept everyone at Pine Brook up to date on the progress that was being made in the food collection.

"Without all of the students' hard work this project would not have been a success," Druckman said, giving credit for the project's success to the students and adding that the children were so excited about the February food drive that they may do it again in the spring.

Druckman said that for the five years she has been teaching at the Pine Brook School she has directed her students in some sort of charity event each year. She said she will continue to support those efforts because "it is important not only to educate them academically, but also to encourage them to be well-rounded people who think of others."