Making A Difference For Those In Need: Greenwich High School Students Come Together For Annual Food Drive

GREENWICH, CT — The season of giving is all but here, and students at Greenwich High School are doing their part to brighten Thanksgiving for local families in need.

Each year, Greenwich High School partners with the Greenwich Department of Human Services and the department's holiday aid program in which upwards of 400 families request assistance during the holiday season.

GHS is responsible for helping 100 of those families through its annual Thanksgiving Food Drive.

Since Nov. 3, each house at GHS has donated non-perishable food items, and members of the GHS Roots & Shoots Club have helped sort and pack the items for distribution in the student center.

Items include canned pumpkin, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, tomato sauce, as well as pasta, cereal and produce.

On Nov. 24, the packed food bags will be loaded into the cars of GHS staff and delivered to families in time for Thanksgiving on Nov. 27.

Students have also been contributing cash over the past few weeks which will go toward providing each family a $100 gift card to ShopRite.

As of Wednesday afternoon, the Roots & Shoots Club has accumulated over 1,300 food items, about halfway to the club's goal. Non-perishable food items can be dropped off at the GHS front office until the end of the school day on Nov. 21.

Donations for the ShopRite gift cards can be made through Nov. 24 at this link.

Logan Bladimirsquy, who is in 10th grade, said he joined the Roots & Shoots Club to help those in need and to hang out with his friends.

Roots & Shoots is a youth-led global community action program founded by the late Dr. Jane Goodall. The mission of the program is "to empower young people to affect positive change in their communities."

"It makes me feel really good because I'm helping out people in need. It's very fulfilling," Bladimirsquy told Patch.

The GHS club has around 30 members, and membership swells during this time of year with students looking to help out.

Fellow 10th-grader Chantelle Rodriguez joined the club at the beginning of the school year.

"I think it's just a great way to help out with my community and get more in touch with the community," Rodriguez said. "It's also a great help for those who are in need. I feel like a lot of people already don't do that, so I wanted to help out and hang with my friends."

GHS social studies teacher and Roots & Shoots Faculty Advisory Jess Somma is in her third year of overseeing the annual food drive.

"It's great," Somma said of the students coming together to help those in need.

It's not until delivery day that the students fully realize the impact they've made, according to Soma.

"I think they don't really see the impact of it until the actual delivery day. When they're giving the bags to the teachers and the teachers drive away, they're like, 'Oh, my God, that's going to a family that really needs it.'"