Youth Appreciation Week for Thursday: Diversity Festival, Food Drive

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A Diversity Festival will be the highlight of the fourth day of Youth Appreciation Week on Thursday. 

The festival will take place from 5 to 9 p.m. at the West Essex YMCA, at 321 South Livingston Ave. There will be live music, cultural performances, a kids fashion show and food samples from around the world.

The event is free. 

The entire community is invited and encouraged to attend. It's an opportunity for children to learn about other cultures, take pride in their own heritage or just hang around with friends. 

For a listing of upcoming events for Youth Appreciation Week, click here.

Those who attend can join in the fashion show, put on a cultural performance or bring food for the community to taste. 

If you would like to participate, call (973) 992-7500, or contact Cheryl Francione cfrancione@metroymcas.org or John Kane jkane@metroymcas.org.

Elsewhere, the Capital Heights Lyric Opera Company will present a production of "Hansel & Gretel" at 7 p.m. at the Livingston Public Library, at 10 Robert H Harp Drive. 

Stuff the Bus will also have a food collection for Community Hunger Outreach Warehouse, or C.H.O.W.

Food collected will be made available to those accessing C.H.O.W. services and it will also be distributed to local food pantries and soup kitchens in the area including Interfaith Food Pantry, Apostle House, Mother Theresa’s and Oheb Shalom Bobrow Kosher Food Pantry, among others.

The bus will be stopping at participating Livingston public schools, JCC MetroWest, at 760 Northfield Ave., West Orange, and more. 

The Stuff the Bus initiative will continue on Saturday and will make stops at Kings Food Market, at 255 S. Livingston Ave, and ShopRite, at 483 S. Livingston Ave., and also at the Oval to receive donations.