Little Ones Give Big Gift, Haul Food Six Blocks

They say good things come in small packages.

At Playhouse it's more like small packages bring good things. Tuesday morning 13 small packages in the form of 5-year-old students visited the to give the gift of food back to their community.

The students attend Playhouse, a Cooperative Nursery School, which is celebrating its 60th year in the West Orange Community and its sixth year of donating to the pantry. Lisa Korn, director of the school, said, "We believe in hands on learning where children learn in a meaningful way and part of that is involvement in the community."

Caroline Cole teaches the transitional kindergarten class that made the donations. The morning of the donation the children's excitement was palpable. Lining up outside the school in groups of two, each team had their own wagon to pull. In addition to Cole, the class' assistant teacher Claire Monaghan and two class parents helped the 13 children haul seven wagons for the six block journey.

Along on the adventure was Elana Halberstadt whose son Max is in the class. "He was very excited about the idea of helping others," she said. They went shopping together for their donations, "he picked out mac & cheese because he wanted to share something he loves with other kids."

Dina Pressel volunteered as well and helped her son Mitchell pull his wagon. She also went shopping with her son for donations for the drive. "I volunteer every week at the Interfaith Food Panty in Orange. Doing this I get to volunteer for a cause I believe in and I get to share it with my son which makes it great," she said.

Once at the church the class was greeted by Alice Hoffman, the director of the pantry, and her team of volunteers. Hoffman said last month, "we serviced 623 people and we have 90 new referrals so far." She said "there
is definitely need and we are very appreciative of the children’s donations."

Michele Bloschock is one of the volunteers and coordinators at the pantry who helped the children with their carts. Bloschock said she normally "does a lot of running around and picking up of donations" and that she was "happy to help out with the children today."

In addition to dropping off their donations, the children were given a tour of the pantry. Hoffman provided them with some treats before their walk back, "I always love when the kids come."

In total the class collected 144 cans, 68 boxes, 27 bags, 22 jars and 13 soaps and shampoos. But of all the things collected, the item the children were most excited to donate was a toy helicopter. 

The helicopter started out as a project the afternoon students put together and then painted. Cole said the students "wanted to give another child a present that might not have one."

Cole says she plans her visit before the winter holidays because Hoffman advised her that so much is donated during Thanksgiving that people forget there is a real need around the end of the year too. 

A teacher at the school for nine years, Cole started doing the food pantry donation with her class six years ago when a parent approached her with the idea.

"It was such a great opportunity we decided to do it every year and every year it gets bigger and bigger."