HIGH SCHOOL NEWS
Brentwood Borough School District rentwood Borough SCHOOL DISTRICT NEWS
National Honor Society Helps Local Food Pantry
By: Ms. Megan Casey
Frigid temperatures did not stop Brentwood High School’ s National Honor Society from fulfilling their service project of helping to provide local families with holiday food, gifts and books.
Despite air temperatures in the low teens, 47 high school students spent the day volunteering at the Stewart Avenue Lutheran Church Food Pantry to assist them in preparing for their monthly food distribution.
Students donned extra layers to help unpack a moving truck filled with 4,200 pounds of food received from the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank, which distributes food to local food pantries. Once the food was wheeled into the church basement, one group of students unpacked the boxes and began the careful process of counting out items into bags that are distributed to food bank clients each month. Vicki Murrio, the director of the food bank, directed the students, making sure that each bag contained the proper amount and selection of items to ensure that clients had enough to eat.
“ Having the students here is so helpful,” Murrio said, explaining that it normally would take a much longer time for her and the other volunteers at the church to unpack and prepare all the food.
While some students bagged food, other students also arranged new and gently used gift donations into a“ Santa Shop”, enabling the food bank clients and their children to pick out gifts for each other.
A third group of students cheerfully sorted donated books into age levels, and prepared bags of books for each child whose family uses the food bank.
This is the third year that the students have completed their group service project at the food bank.
“ Seeing that there is a need for food in their local community is an eye-opener for many of them,” said NHS sponsor Megan Casey.“ I think it really makes them consider how important their volunteer work truly is to people who may be their neighbors and friends.”
70 Brentwood-Baldwin-Whitehall