Seen here are members of the PCHS Service Learning Class and their teacher. They include Titus Sherry, Gael Ruiz, Mrs. Jennifer Higgs, Matthew Farmer, Mrs. Connie Armentrout, Blessed Epperly, Daniel Gallimore, Gabriel Tinsley, and Matthew Tabor.
What started as an idea to provide a few students with snacks for the holidays turned into a much larger project, with students from the Pulaski County High School Service Learning Program working to provide a special gift to students with food insecurities.
Originally, Mrs. Jennifer Higgs and her Service Learning students planned to pack enough “Snacky Snack Packs” for students with a need at the high school. After word got out, however, others became involved and the decision was made to turn it into a project that included every school in Pulaski County.
“These hardworking students in my class have been working on serving our community in new ways this semester,” Mrs. Higgs said. “They have planned, budgeted, shopped, and packed bags for weeks to prepare for the deliveries we made today. We have been accepting donations of money for shopping and food for our bags for the last several weeks and were able to provide for many students to have bags full of food to take home this holiday season. We hope to continue this in the future leading into breaks for our students and I am very proud of how hard these students have worked to help others.”
The Service Learning students raised money and took in donations for their original project. They took the money that was collected and went on a shopping trip locally to secure the snacks. After hearing about the plan, members of the school system also held a drive at Kroger in Fairlawn, collecting even more donations to help fill all of the bags.
Radford University donated 300 draw string bags to deliver the snacks in. A coordinated effort between staff at Riverlawn Elementary, which had also started to plan a snack bag project of their own until hearing about the Service Learning student project, helped stuff even more of the bags with the snacks. RES School Counselor Mrs. Jenna Wilson and RES Principal Mrs. Kim Sink and others worked when they could throughout last week to continue stuffing more bags.
By the end of the packaging process, the group delivered 40 bags to the high school last week, along with 125 delivered on Monday. There were enough donations for 200 bags. The remaining snacks will be stored at the Riverlawn Elementary snack closet and distributed to students in need.
Monday, December 18, the Service Learning students delivered the bags to the schools around the county for distribution with Mrs. Higgs.
"We appreciate all of the effort our school administrators, teachers and school students have made to make Snack Pack bags and deliver them to PCPS community members,” PCPS Superintendent Robert Graham said. “I continue to be impressed each day at the commitment and dedication our students and staff have to taking care of and supporting this special school community. The Snack Pack program has been a huge success due to the kindness and generosity of many in this school division."