Neighbor News
Students with Autism Help Families In Need
Teens at The Forum School Collect Food to Help Neighbors
Waldwick, NJ – Students with autism at The Forum School are working hard to make sure that friends and neighbors will not go hungry this winter. They are collecting food for the Center for Food Action, a non-profit group based in Bergen County whose mission is to prevent hunger and homelessness and improve the lives of individuals and families living in poverty.
Classes that are part of The Forum School’s L.I.F.T. Program - Learning Independence For Tomorrow - began collecting food for the Center for Food Action several years ago. Last year they started delivering their food to the organization’s Saddle Brook location, which provides roughly 4,600 emergency food packages every month.
The L.I.F.T. Program at The Forum School prepares students with autism for future employment through community-based learning. In addition to benefitting local families in need, this activity also offers students with autism the opportunity to learn a wide range of social and life skills during the entire process. Under the direction of teacher Joseph Dietzold, students create and distribute flyers, interact with Stop & Shop customers to ask for donations, sort food into categories, and then track and deliver the food and money collected.
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“This year we collected 1,141 food items and $367.00,” said Dietzold, a special education teacher at The Forum School for 34 years.
“It always gets me choked up when I see that look on a student’s face when they realize they are helping families who don’t have enough food to eat,” he added.
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Founded by parents in 1954 and located in Waldwick, NJ, The Forum School is a New Jersey state-approved private nonprofit school serving students with autism and related learning, language, behavioral, and social challenges who are not able to learn in a public school setting. Students with disabilities ages 5-21 are placed by their local school district and attend at no cost to parents. For more information please visit: www.theforumschool.com, or call (201) 444-5882.
