Hays County Food Bank representative Jane Kirkham (back, center) joins Blair Little’s fifth grade class at Kyle Elementary School during the “Turkeys Tacking Hunger” food drive. (Courtesy photo)
by JIM CULLEN
Public Christmas decorations appeared to coincide with retails stores’ beginning of “the season” just days after Halloween and Yule holiday songs are in the air everywhere, including the music halls of Hays CISD band and choir rooms across the district. But before the Christmas season took full hold of local students and teachers, the annual “Turkeys Tackling Hunger” campaign successfully swept across the district once again, allowing creativity and charity a highlight moment.
Partnered with the Hays County Food Bank, the “Turkeys” project provides a vehicle for every member of the school community to help provide a full and nourishing meal to an area family during the holidays. While the campaign was officially set to run through this week’s return from Thanksgiving, a number of local campuses – each deciding if and how to operate its own campaign – wrapped up their efforts just prior to the break. Some of their positive results have already appeared on our pages.
Notable for a person trying to get a handle on the immensity of the local impact was witnessing the arrival at the Hays CISD Performing Arts Center of a refrigerated truck load of boxed foods and frozen turkeys. That truck arrived one morning just before the Thanksgiving break to be greeted by volunteers from the local business community, the school district, campus counselors, and Communities in Schools representatives intent on getting the food out to local campuses – and their respective families.
It was a unified effort to behold. Within 90 minutes almost 200 boxes and turkeys had been dispersed to a fleet of cars and trucks, all bound for HCISD campuses and all destined to bring a small measure of cheer into local homes.
Hays County Food Bank Activities Coordinator Kate Shaw has seen the local effort up-close and she has an informed perspective on that effort.
“Over the last few years, the Hays Consolidated Independent School District has become a major part of our ‘Turkeys Tackling Hunger’ campaign. The administration, staff and students show a great deal of enthusiasm for serving the community, and they have championed the cause of feeding families for the holidays. Public Information Officer Julie Jerome and Angie Mendez, Director of Development and Community Partnerships, have been enormously helpful with the campaign,” Shaw says.
Last year the Hays County Food Bank coordinated turkey dinner meals and all the trimmings for more than 6,500 people as part of “Turkeys Tackling Hunger” and, Shaw says, “the need has increased. This year we provided 30 percent more turkey boxes to county residents – a total of 2,174 boxes. The support we receive from the staff and students of Hays CISD is more important than ever.”
Shaw shared a letter received from a Communities in Schools liaison from Hays CISD, a program manager bringing “unforgettable” stories of her four-year privilege delivering turkey boxes. While delivering a box to a family of eight, the youngest child dug through the box and excitedly yelled, “Aww, cool, Mom! Look! Pumpkin pie!” Another sibling hollered out, “Mmmm, pumpkin pie! I LOVE Thanksgiving! Look, Mom, now we’ll actually have a turkey to make for Thanksgiving!” The mom in the story was “eternally grateful.”
Another of the delivering person’s recollections was at a home where the youngest in a family of five enthusiastically ran out to the car to help with the box of goodies he said would make it “the best Thanksgiving ever!”
Multiply the stories a hundred times and consider the impact on a community. Local students can – and do – make a difference in the lives of others.
