Boxes from Orchard Food Drive

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Cover of BOXES FOR KATJE (c) by Candace Fleming, with pictures by Stacey Dresen-McQueen. Used with the permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

One of this year's Red Clover books, Boxes for Katje by Candace Fleming, deals with the hardships in Holland after World War II, and how families in the United States sent boxes of food to the needy in Europe. As an extension of the book, classes at Orchard School participated in a food drive that was titled, "Boxes from Orchard." Each class gathered the groceries needed for one complete Thanksgiving dinner that was donated to the Chittenden Emergency Food Shelf. Staff members donated money to be used for grocery store gift certificates to purchase turkeys for needy families.

Below are pictures taken on November 19, 2004, as representatives from each of Orchard's eighteen classrooms delivered their Thanksgiving dinners to the Food Shelf.

When a class box was complete, it was brought to the stage.	Families were SO generous!!
One student from each house (K-1, 2-3, 4-5) made up a delivery team with their adult leader. Here, the teams gather with our new superintendent, Dr. Gail Durkel (far left) and Orchard principal, Rick Ebel (far right).
Loading the bus was hard work!	We acted as a team.
Mrs. Bennett, Orchard's head custodian, led one group.	Everyone helped out.
Off we go!
Working together......	...we moved our boxes into the Food Shelf.


The Food Shelf staff weighed our Thanksgiving boxes. They came to over 700 pounds of food!
We were given a tour of the Chittenden Emergency Food Shelf.	We were so glad to be able to help those less fortunate.
We felt so proud of our efforts! With our donation, nineteen families had a very good Thanksgiving meal. Some Chittenden Emergency Food Shelf statistics from 2004: Almost 1.2 million pound of food was donated, as much as half from neighborhood and school food drives. 1,932 households received food. More than 5,000 hot meals per month were served. 120 homebound seniors and disabled adults had groceries delivered to them. Wanda Hines, director of the Chittenden Emergency Food Shelf said in a Burlington Free Press article dated 11/30/04: "Food drives lend to the integrity of a community. They teach responsibility and leadership, especially to our young people. I love a good old-fashioned food drive." Thank you Orchard families for making this project possible!

Digital images and web page created by Donna Macdonald, Orchard School's Library/Media Specialist.