NMS Student Council Collecting Food For WIN

By Eliza Hallabeck

The Newtown Middle School Student Council has been busy collecting food to donate to Women Involved in Newtown’s (WIN) yearly Thanksgiving Baskets campaign, but with school cancelled due to Winter Storm Alfred’s aftermath last week, the student group is now a week behind schedule with a quickly approaching deadline of November 17.

A collection of assorted nonperishables and hygiene products have already been collected at the school since the collection started on October 31.

On Friday, November 18, members of WIN will stop at the school to pick up all collected items to donated to its Thanksgiving Baskets program.

Newtown Middle School is not alone in collecting for WIN’s Thanksgiving Baskets: Sandy Hook School, Middle Gate Elementary School, and Reed Intermediate School are also holding collections, according to the schools and to WIN member Cyndy DaSilva.

According to WIN, the Thanksgiving Baskets program is a townwide drive to provide local families food to last from Thanksgiving into the holiday season. Social Services compiles a list of families in need in the Newtown area, which is kept confidential, and WIN then matches participating organizations with a family or donations are matched with a family’s need.

Ms DaSilva said there are between 75 to 80 families in need this year that have applied through Social Services. She also said WIN members will spend all day on Friday, November 18, collecting food from each of the schools and organizations involved in the drive to bring the assembled goods to the United Methodist Church, 92 Church Hill Road.

While each of the schools are conducting separate drives for the campaign with differing drop-off directions, Ms DaSilva said anyone interested in also donating to the program on Friday, November 18, can bring donations to the United Methodist Church between 9 am and 4 pm.

Families are still available to adopt through the program, Ms DaSilva said. Anyone interested in adopting a family can call WIN member Mandy Monaco at 203-426-5600.

Newtown Middle School’s Student Council’s food drive is scheduled to run until WIN members collect food on November 18. Anyone interested in donating to the middle school’s food collection is asked to drop off donations at the school’s main lobby before November 17. Parents with middle school students can also send food in to the school with their children.

Middle Gate Elementary School will also accept donations dropped off at its main office by November 17 by students or their parents.

Sandy Hook Elementary School has multiple food drives occurring at the school. Annually the school holds a Turkey Trot, which asks students to bring food to their classrooms for collections, which then get added to the school’s donation to WIN’s Thanksgiving Basket program. A box in the school’s lobby is set up to collect food for the program. Sandy Hook School also collects food and money throughout the holiday season for an adopt-a-family program, and that collection is through Sand Hook’s FAITH Food Pantry.

At Reed Intermediate School, the school’s Interact Club is busy with multiple drives right now. The school is collecting food and other donations for WIN’s Thanksgiving Baskets in the main lobby at the school until November 17, the day before WIN members will deliver all assembled goods to the United Methodist Church. Reed’s Interact Club is also busy collecting unused Halloween candy to donate to the Dorothy Day House in Danbury until November 18, and is also collecting money to donate to Unicef through November 18.