West Orange Students Form 'Human Chain' To Donate Food To Local Pantry

West Orange, NJ – What do 1,238 packages of food look like? Students at Washington Elementary School in West Orange now know the answer.

That’s how many items the students managed to collect and deliver to their next-door-neighbor, the Holy Trinity-West Orange Food Pantry, during its annual “Human Chain” food drive last month, according to school officials.

K-5 students at the school learned about helping the community during the annual event, with the class collecting the most items receiving a well-deserved pizza party.

“It’s important to help people that don’t have enough food,” said fifth grade student Gloria Anuamadi, who also attends Holy Trinity Episcopal Church and volunteers in both the food pantry and Soup Kitchen.

Washington School kindergarten teacher and event organizer Linda Perna said that she was pleased about this year’s event.

“The students get so excited about it,” Perna said. “They start asking around the time of the Super Bowl when our ‘soup-er bowl’ will be starting. The excitement and enthusiasm is obvious the day we have our hand-off.”

“It takes a lot of time and hard work to run the food pantry,” noted Cynthia Cumming, pantry administrator. “We are lucky to have such a wonderful community that supports us.”

“We look forward to the Washington School drive every year, not just because it delivers useful items to stock our shelves, but because it is so touching and heartwarming to see the smiles, compassion and enthusiasm from the students,” Cumming attested. “It never gets old.”

According to a school news release, the food pantry is open the last two Tuesdays and Fridays of each month from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., and the fourth Monday of the month from 6 to 8 p.m.

West Orange residents in need of food can contact Cynthia Cumming at (201) 341-9217, or at holytrinitywo@gmail.com.

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Photo: West Orange Public Schools