Thanks to some friendly competition between two Carroll County schools, volunteers at Shepherd's Staff outreach ministry won't be running out of cranberry sauce today when they serve their traditional turkey dinner at St. John Catholic Church in Westminster.
It all started with a challenge: New Windsor Middle School pupils asked members of a special education resource class at Northwest Middle School in Taneytown to match a can of sauce for every napkin holder made at New Windsor. When the contest was over, Northwest Middle pupils had collected 356 cans of sauce and New Windsor pupils had made 350 napkins holders and 300 favors for the tables, said Ellen Bower, a Northwest Middle School special education instructional assistant.
In the past few weeks, schools across the Baltimore area have donated tons of food to the Maryland Food Bank, individual families, women's shelters, outreach centers and homebound AIDS patients.
Students brought in canned goods, contributed allowances and snack money, conducted fund-raising drives and competed with classmates and students at other schools to collect the most food.
Those efforts stand out as a bright spot in a bleak period for many food providers. Amid a troubled economy, many providers say they are having a tough time keeping pace with an increased demand.
"We were amazed at the amount of food the children collected," said Barbara Bisset, principal of Fifth District Elementary School in Upperco in Baltimore County. "They quadrupled the amount from last year."
The 280 pupils at Fifth District collected nearly 2 tons of food as part of the Kids Helping Kids program, Bisset said. The program is run by Harvest for the Hungry, a volunteer effort that raises food and money for the Maryland Food Bank. One class surpassed the goal of collecting 100 pounds of food with a total of 911 pounds. The items filled the nurse's office, the gymnasium storage room and the guidance office, she said.
"I call it the little school with the big heart," Bisset said.
At Calvert Hall College High School in Towson, students counted the items instead of weighing them and came up with a record-setting 34,000 cans of food.
"Last year, we thought we had a lot of food," said campus minister Michael Vogrin. "This year, we had 20,000 more. It was overwhelming."
The food was donated to Paul's Place Outreach Center, St. Ambrose Family Outreach Center, Aunt Hattie's Place and the Women's Housing Coalition.
In Anne Arundel County, two schools have collected thousands of pounds of food in dueling drives for the past several years. This year, Crofton Middle School collected 26,102 pounds of food, besting Southern High School by more than 8,000 pounds, said John Camm, a Crofton Middle social studies teacher who coordinated the drive.
At South River High School in Edgewater, students collected 17,700 pounds of food, including canned and dry goods and frozen turkeys. The students asked for food instead of candy at Halloween and donated cash to buy food, said social studies teacher Doug Brown.
Nearly all of the 68 schools in Howard County held drives to raise money or to collect food for needy families. At Clarksville Middle, the eighth-graders raised more than $1,000 from a social they held and collected 4,000 pounds of food, which went to the Howard County Food Bank.
Pupils at Talbott Springs Elementary in Columbia filled 10 boxes with nonperishable food, which was distributed to needy families in the school district along with grocery store certificates. The school collects food every year, but the second-graders made an extra effort this year. They gave up their snack money for a month to buy food for others.
"We talked to the children and stressed the importance of giving for the holidays," said Terry Wisniewski, a second-grade instructional assistant. "One child said, 'Can I give part of my snack money?' and it evolved into this competition."
At Polytechnic Institute in the city, students participated in the Thanksgiving basket project, a tradition at the school. Each homeroom contributed an entire dinner -- including the turkey and all the trimmings -- to one family. Members of the senior class delivered the meals yesterday.
Pupils at Mary E. Rodman Elementary School in West Baltimore collected 6,266 pennies in one week to purchase turkeys for needy families in the area and also donated canned goods.
Students at Friends upper and lower schools in North Baltimore provided 120 bags of nonperishable food to families in Southeast Baltimore.
The middle school pupils purchased turkeys with money that they raised at a school carnival and brought canned goods to make meals for the Hannah More shelter and the Baltimore Department of Social Services.
Park School students from Brooklandville delivered food for the Maryland Community Kitchen program, which sends meals to homebound AIDS patients. Students also served food at Our Daily Bread soup kitchen.
Students at Havre de Grace High School will still be working today, decorating the cafeteria, serving, delivering meals and transporting residents to the school.
Teacher Don Osman, adviser to the service club SMILES (Service Makes an Individual's Life Extra Special), said between 50 and 75 Havre de Grace students, plus an unknown number from other area schools, would be serving about 400 meals today.
Money for the turkeys and trimmings was raised through fund-raisers and donations.
"There are even a number of graduates who come back every year and volunteer to help," Osman said.
Sun staff writers Tricia Bishop, Laura Loh, Jennifer McMenamin and Tanika White contributed to this article.