SMS staff donating food to families for Thanksgiving
Posted on 11/09/2018
Donated food(SPS) - The Thanksgiving holiday is just a couple weeks away and the staff at Sapulpa Middle School has already come up with its grocery list.

The groceries, however, are for someone else - families of Middle School students who are in need of assistance as designated by the district’s Homeless Coordinator.

“We have 33 of those kids, so I know I’m only going to be able to feed eight families and that includes, you know, siblings,” said Sixth Grade Counselor Amber Fitzgerald. “Eventually, the goal is to encompass that whole list.”

For the second year in a row, the staff, led by counselors Amber Fitzgerald and Michale Stanley, began collecting food on Nov. 1. They’ve asked the staff at SMS to donate what they can, but if someone else wants to give, their donation will gladly be accepted.

“That just allows me to feed more families,” Mrs. Fitzgerald said of donations from outside the school.

Each family will receive:

Turkey
Dressing/Stuffing (2 boxes)
Cream of Mushroom soup (2 cans)
Green Beans (2 cans)
Fried Onions
Instant Mashed Potatoes
Canned Milk (2 cans)
Gravy (2 packages)
Bread
Butter
Cranberry Sauce (2 cans)
Carrots, Black-eyed Peas, or Corn (2 cans)
Cake Mix with Frosting or Brownie Mix
Paper Plates
Styrofoam Cups
Plastic Cutlery
Paper Towels

As you can imagine, those who received the food last year were grateful.

“We had a couple of people cry, which was not my intention, but very happy,” said Mrs. Fitzgerald.

She said that some of the families told her they wouldn’t have had anything to eat or that they would have just had hot dogs for their Thanksgiving dinner.

“It means a lot to me to be able to do that for them.”

The drive will continue until Nov. 14 so Mrs. Fitzgerald and her team can deliver the groceries before school lets out for the week of the Thanksgiving holiday.