WESTFIELD – Students at Westfield Vocational-Technical High School (WVTHS) know that some of their peers and their families struggle this time of year.
“We have our own food pantry in our school in the teacher’s cafeteria,” said WVTHS Principal Stefan Czaporowski. “Fifty percent of our kids receive free or reduced lunch and we have some families that are in need.”
Czaporowski said that the drive is usually driven by staff donations, but this year, the school’s Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) Club is leading the charge.
“They decided to run a competition of the whole school, based on technical programs,” he said. “We ended up raising about 2,500 food items which, if you do the math, is about five items per student.”
The 30 or so students involved with the FBLA aren’t the only WVTHS students helping their fellow Tigers in need. Czaporowski said that the school’s Key Club also plays an integral role for needy families during the holiday season and “adopts” 10 families every Thanksgiving through staff and community donations.
“We find out about that families that are in need, either through our guidance and adjustment counselors or even our school nurse,” he said before listing the items available to students in need. “Canned and boxed goods, but also health and beauty products too, like toothbrushes.”
“This year, the Westfield Food Pantry donated 15 turkeys, so we were able to adopt five more families,” he added. “They’ll get a turkey, stuffing, potatoes, vegetables, cranberry sauce and some kind of dessert.”
“Any food that isn’t taken by our students to feed their own families, we donate to the Westfield Food Pantry,” Czaporowski said. “We can’t use (the food) over the summer and if it is within a month or two of going out of date, we bring it over to the pantry.”
Alison Ferrari, a WVTHS history teacher and staff advisor for the Key Club, said this is the fifth year that the organization is adopting families, which is done anonymously.
Ferrari said that the student’s knowledge that the food will be going to the families of students they see, learn and maintain friendships with is what makes it special.
“The first year we did this, another group was sponsoring a family with the Salvation Army and they delivered the food face-to-face,” said Ferrari. “I said to my kids that we could do it that way or we could do it anonymously and they agreed that they’d rather help people in our school (anonymously).”
Ferrari took eight of the students shopping at a local supermarket yesterday afternoon and said that the students were very excited.
“The faculty and staff from whom we have raised and solicited the money have been super-generous,” she said, adding that last year’s total was over $600.
This year the donations are hovering around $400, according to Ferrari, who stated that unspent funds are rolled over in December to buy Christmas presents for underprivileged students in the school.
The Key Club also assists the Westfield Women’s Club with putting on meals at the Westfield Soup Kitchen every month and with the luminaria bags that are offered through the Cancer House of Hope at Westfield’s Genesis Spiritual Life Center in early December.
