Before the district goes on break, Lewiston-Porter students will conduct an act of Thanksgiving generosity for a neighboring community.
Lew-Port’s middle schoolers will make bagged lunches for Niagara Falls homeless shelters on Tuesday. All 427 students in the 6th, 7th, and 8th grades, six teachers and Principal Andrew Auer will be involved with the meals for Community Missions and Heart, Love & Soul.
“We’re hoping the students get a good hands-on experience and the community service learning carries on after leaving Lew-Port,” said 6th-grade teacher Laura Kimoto, one of the teachers involved.
The simple lunches are made of sandwiches, apples and granola bars. Students will start making them at 1:15 p.m. on Tuesday and teachers will deliver them to the homeless shelters after school that day.
Lew-Port Middle School has had its CREW program, which engages students in social and emotional learning, for the past three years since the state implemented such programs into public school curriculums. Service projects were implemented as part of building character and students seeing what kind of impact they can have in the community.
The school started making lunches for homeless shelters last year when the students made nearly 500 meals for the two shelters along with St. Luke’s Mission of Mercy in Buffalo. They aim to make the same amount of meals though they are limiting themselves to local shelters.
Because of the decrease in state funding to school districts, businesses like DiMino’s Tops, Restaurant Depot, Walmart and Pellicano’s donated supplies while students and parents raised more than $800.
As part of the CREW learning service projects, students since May have performed cleanup work at Delaware Park in Buffalo, helped cut trees, carry debris and pick up garbage. The county’s parks department even contracted them to do cleanup at some parks.
Each month has a different character trait to emphasize, with November being gratitude. Teachers also have lessons on food waste and how there are people who live among the students who are struggling to get by.
“We are hoping that students will be thankful for what they have and being able to help others in need,” Kimoto said.
Link to our featured article in the Niagara Gazette, written by Robert Creenan- here.