Blue Tri Food Drive Feeds 58 Families

By: Lauren Palermo
Senior Cedric Price, Blue Tri Club President and four-year member, was astounded by the generosity of both students and staff at the 2016 Thanksgiving Food Drive. For one month, the club solicited donations of non-perishable, traditional Thanksgiving food, money and turkeys to feed Rahway’s neediest families. Cedric remarked, “I’m very excited to be doing the food drive again this year. We continue to feed more families each and every time.”
On November 18, with advisors, Ms. Rieder and Ms. Palermo, 35 Blue Tri students assembled for the day to collect, sort, and package the donations from the district to be delivered to the families. Vice-President, Andrea Barwick, commented, “Every year that I’ve done this, the experience has been more enjoyable. It’s amazing how community comes together to help each other.”
With the money that was collected, Ms. Rieder spent the weekend purchasing turkeys and whatever else was needed to complete the care boxes. With the help of the maintenance and nursing staff, all of the holiday packages were distributed throughout the district.
Ms. Palermo was deeply moved and rededicated to this project when a Blue Tri member confided that her family had been the recipient of one of these food baskets last year when her family was in dire straits. Since the family is doing better now, she wanted to reciprocate. She brought in two completed baskets of food and donated $20.
Ms. Rieder and Ms. Palermo are thankful for the generosity and benevolence of the students, staff and community. They look forward to continuing this endeavor next year.