By Nate Jones

Staff Writer 

Last Friday the students at Arundel’s Mildred L. Day School were making castles on the gymnasium floor not with Lego’s or blocks, but hundreds of cans and boxes of non-perishable food. The students collected more than 1,600 different food items during the past five weeks as part of a school-wide “100 Ways To Give From The Heart” campaign.

Students brought food from home in addition to collecting corporate donations from local organizations such as Stop and Shop, Unum, Hannaford, Champagne Propane Group and Weirs Motors, who provided the truck to transport the food. 

“It really kind of exploded,” said Teaching Assistant Adrianna Pizzo, the driving force behind the project. Each classroom at the school set a 100-item goal, and many went above and beyond, she said. The classes each focused on collecting a specific type of food, such as cereal, canned vegetables and some classes even collected dog and cat food to donate to the Animal Welfare Society. 

Pizzo based the food drive on a similar program run by North Berwick Elementary School. 

“I met the principal at a University of Southern Maine conference and thought it would be good to do,” Pizzo said. “I totally stole the idea.”

The North Berwick program just completed it’s fifth food drive, collecting more than 3,200 items, and has inspired similar food drives throughout the district 60 elementary schools in addition to schools in Shapleigh and Alfred, North Berwick Elementary teacher Sharon Beckwith said. 

“We’re really hoping that next year we can try and organize a county-wide effort,” she said.

Wendy Lank, Arundel’s social services administrator said the Arundel food drive was one of the first she has participated in.

“The scouts used to bring the food to [social services] and we would bring it to the pantry, but for the past few years they’ve been bringing it straight there,” Lank said.

All of the food was donated to the Church Community Outreach Services (CCOS) food pantry in Kennebunk.

“The kids are wonderful because they donate things that are typically very hard to get,” said Beth Jones, a CCOS chairperson.

The structure of the Arundel drive resulted in the pantry receiving a wide variety of food, Jones said.

“Usually when we get a lot of one single item we send it on the the York County pantry in Alfred,” she said. “This time we’re keeping it all.”

Aiden Mooday, a second grader at the school, said it was tough to part with some of the food.

“Cheerios are my favorite,” he said.

Fifth grader Evan Combes said he felt good about the food going to people who needed it. 

“I got food from shopping at Shaws,” said Chris Caron, another fifth grader.

Samantha Lovely, who is in the third grade, said she collected food for cats and dogs. Both she and Madison Richards, who are in the second grade, said they were looking forward to collecting even more food next year.

Jones said the food, some of which they sent out the final day of the drive, could last the pantry up to a month depending on demand.

“It’s been a really hard winter,” she said.

If you would like to donate non-perishable items you can call Jones at 967-3613 or drop items off at the Saint Martha’s Church on Portland Road in Kennebunk. Jones said they are also accepting fuel assistance donations which can be mailed to Church Community Outreach Services, PO Box 1175, Kennebunk.

To contact Nate Jones call 282-433, ext. 233 or email news@kennebunkpost.com.