SALAMANCA — The Salamanca City Central School District hosted its fifth annual Community Thanksgiving Dinner on Nov. 14, run by the student-organized Key Club, with help from the school district, staff, students and community.
After taking two years off due to COVID-19, the school served about 400 dinners to the Salamanca community, about a quarter of which were to-go boxes.
“Given that it was our first year back, I was pleased with that number,” said Ann Smith, Key Club co-advisor with Billie Breazeale. “And the response from the community was amazing. We received so many compliments on the food and the kids’ friendliness as they served.”
This was Smith and Breazeale’s first year as co-advisors of the Key Club, a high school club that partners with the local Kiwanis Club, but Smith said she had assisted in previous years.
“Kim Dry, the previous advisor to the club, was a great mentor and I am grateful for her leadership in the years I was merely a volunteer,” Smith said. “We tried hard this year to follow her example as she made it all look so easy.”
She said they began early prep as soon as school started in September, talking with kitchen and custodial staff about the space and with teachers about food donations.
“We try to make a list of all the items we will need, which ones will be donated and which ones we will need to purchase,” she explained. “The high school students did a great job bringing in their donation items with the ‘Hungry Games’!”
Students in grade 8 brought in paper goods — so many, in fact, they were able to donate some to the Kiwanis Club for their Extravaganza Friday. Freshmen collected 450 pounds of fresh potatoes, sophomores supplied 75 cans of cranberry sauce, juniors managed 150 cans of corn and seniors provided 75 boxes of stuffing.
Even with all that food, the biggest challenge this year was the uncertainty of how many people to expect. Smith said they knew it would be a rebuilding year with not having nearly as many as in 2019 with 1,000-plus, but there needs to be a balance of enough food without too many leftovers already prepared.
“We got a great amount of donations and the preparations the day before went great, thanks in large part to John Haley and Bob Breazeale and all Key club members and other volunteers,” she said. “The kids were amazing and getting everything panned up and ready to go.”
With about two dozen Key Club members, most of whom were directly involved one way or another, Smith said about 10 to 12 stepped up each day of food prep/service despite their busy schedules, and they were immensely helpful.
“They did everything from donations to planning the food the day before to helping figure out how much to prepare and what and how many other ingredients we needed to serve and cleaning up at the end of each day,” she said.
In addition to serving the 400 meals, Smith said the club is grateful for the generous community members who made cash donations so they can continue to provide this program to the entire community for years to come.
“Events like this are good for our kids in that it reminds them that we are all one community and we are all in this thing called life together,” she explained. “It shows what great things they can accomplish if each of us takes even just a small part and we all work together.”
Smith expressed how grateful she was to have been a part of the project, adding that they could not make it happen without the support of the Kiwanis Club and the Salamanca school district.
“I think any time we can bring the whole community together it is a good thing. If we can bring everyone together around a good meal with good hearts and smiles, that is even better!” she added. “It is a wonderful reminder for all of us that there are far more good people here than bad.”