Shepard, Jewel Partner on Thanksgiving Food Drive

Now in its fourth decade, the Jerry Lemon Needy Family Food Drive at Shepard High School counts on staff members, students, and the community. And this year shoppers at the Jewel Food Store in Palos Heights truly came through.

After Shepard students and staff loaded a mini-bus with food, they stopped at Jewel. Employees brought out carts of turkey dinners – 40 of them -- funded with donations from shoppers. Jewel donated another 40 dinners to Operation Blessing.

The massive contribution extends the reach of the food drive. Shepard students and teachers delivered food on Monday to families unable to pick up at school; later in the week, other families came to Shepard to pick up boxes of donated food.

The Jerry Lemon Needy Family Food Drive, named for a former Shepard teacher, has operated just prior to Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter since the early 1980s.

In the years that followed, the food drive evolved. After Lemon retired, Shepard teacher Glenn Simms managed the food drive for 20 years before retiring. Today, Brad Fisher, Jim Benes, Esther Roth, Kris LaRocco and Erin McLean handle the organization.