KINDERGARTEN KINDNESS

Melrose students buy food for holiday baskets


Kindergarten students Evelyn Stevens, left, and Vivian Catallozzi wait for their classmates after paying for their groceries at McQuade’s Marketplace. The Melrose School class visited the supermarket to buy Thanksgiving fixings for needy families. PHOTOS BY ANDREA VON HOHENLEITEN

Kindergarten students Evelyn Stevens, left, and Vivian Catallozzi wait for their classmates after paying for their groceries at McQuade’s Marketplace. The Melrose School class visited the supermarket to buy Thanksgiving fixings for needy families. PHOTOS BY ANDREA VON HOHENLEITEN

Kindergartners from Melrose School ventured outside the classroom Friday, but it wasn’t to play in the season’s first snowfall.

“There was a lot of temptation,” teacher Colleen MacIntyre said about the fresh white powder.

Before departing for their walk to McQuade’s Marketplace, MacIntyre reminded her students about their task.

“Even though you want to play in the snow, we have a job to do,” she told them. “Today we are helpers.”

When the mission was complete, the students had spent their hard-earned money on Thanksgiving fixings for their neighbors in need.

“They were really proud,” MacIntyre said.

The supermarket trip is an annual tradition at Melrose in which the three kindergarten classes buy food to donate. These items supplement the Thanksgiving baskets that are assembled by the Rotary Club with guidance from St. Mark Church. The baskets are distributed throughout town, and any leftover food not destined for a Thanksgiving table is stocked on the shelves at the local food pantry.

Mason Atkins gets ready to buy a bag of clementines. He was one of several students who purchased the healthy item.

Mason Atkins gets ready to buy a bag of clementines. He was one of several students who purchased the healthy item.

“We talked about not just buying things for Thanksgiving,” MacIntyre said. “Obviously, you need to eat and drink after Thanksgiving is over.”

The Rotarians have been providing the free baskets for about 40 years, and local kindergartners have been filling them for nearly two decades. Despite the Catholic church’s connection, the program is nondenominational.

St. Mark parishioner Kathy Brownell is the liaison between the schools and the Rotarians. According to her, the idea of including the kindergarten classes came from the teaching staff, which called St. Mark to pitch the idea.

“It goes right along with the theme of giving and giving thanks, being kind and sharing,” Brownell said. “It was very well received.”

The kindergartners were introduced to the supermarket trip in October. After MacIntyre asked her class to brainstorm a list of Thanksgiving food, she asked each student to clip an item from the McQuade’s flyer, as long it wasn’t frozen or refrigerated, like pizza or ice cream. Because the Rotarians provide the turkeys, the students were focused on the fixings.

ABOVE: Abby DeMolles uses change she earned to purchase items for the Rotary Club’s Thanksgiving baskets, which are donated to needy families in town. PHOTOS BY ANDREA VON HOHENLEITEN

ABOVE: Abby DeMolles uses change she earned to purchase items for the Rotary Club’s Thanksgiving baskets, which are donated to needy families in town. PHOTOS BY ANDREA VON HOHENLEITEN

To purchase the food, the children raised money by doing chores at home or asking their family to donate pocket change. Because she wanted to teach her class that a little bit of money goes a long way, MacIntyre encouraged her students to raise about $2.

“I wanted them to see that it doesn’t take $50 to help,” she said.

MacIntyre’s class was the last group of kindergartners that walked to the Clark Street plaza; Bev Green and Jane Mitchell had taken their students the day before.

The shopping lists included holiday staples, including stuffing, cranberry sauce and gravy. The students also selected a few untraditional items, like crackers, ground coffee and oranges.

Before entering the store, MacIntyre’s students were given index cards with the items they picked, along with their plastic bags filled with nickels, dimes and pennies. They split into groups to scour the aisles for their groceries.

LEFT: Kindergartner Xavier Catallozzi decided Thanksgiving is not complete without Maxwell House coffee to drink after dinner.

LEFT: Kindergartner Xavier Catallozzi decided Thanksgiving is not complete without Maxwell House coffee to drink after dinner.

“They did great,” MacIntyre said. “Even though they’re young and it seems like it’s not a lot of change, when we put it all together, we bought a lot.”

While some students bought a single item by themselves, other children pooled their money together to purchase a more expensive product. For example, three kindergartners purchased a box of brownie mix. While much of the food was intended for Thanksgiving, kindergartner Eli McGrath had a different destination in mind for the brownies.

“We’re going to put it in the food pantry so if somebody wanted it, they could get it,” she said.

Ben Insana bought a box of English muffins because of his familiarity with the breakfast food.

“That’s what my brother eats,” he said.

Three students ran into a problem at the register when they realized they didn’t have enough money for the three bags of clementines they chose to purchase. Their charitable intentions, however, rubbed off on another shopper who voluntarily paid the difference. MacIntyre said her class plans to write a thank-you letter to the woman.

After the students returned to class, Brownell collected the groceries from the school. In total, roughly 25 bags of donated groceries were transported to the church, including eight bags from MacIntyre’s class.

“The variety is wonderful,” Brownell said. “They were very creative.”

Cashier Sandra Pizzuti, who waited on the group who bought the clementines, enjoyed the visit.

“They did very well,” Pizzuti said. “They were very sweet and very well behaved. It was a pleasure waiting on them.”

Likewise, the children relished the experience of shopping during school hours.

“It was fun,” kindergartner Priscilla Mendoza said.

The Thanksgiving baskets were distributed to their recipients Sunday in the parking lot at St. Mark. Along with turkeys and the groceries purchased by the children, the baskets included vegetables and drinks. Because the recipients of the baskets prefer to stay anonymous, they do not thank the students in person. Instead, Brownell thanks the classes on their behalf.

“I’m going to thank you now in advance for your kindness,’” she told them. “We build up kindness in giving back.”