District bus garage/maintenance departments help with The Food Bank’s Backpack Program

More than 42,500 pounds of food was collected during The Food Bank of the Southern Tier’s third annual Fill the Bus Campaign. This food will help provide more than 12,000 packs of food for the Food Bank’s Backpack Program, which provides a bag of nutritious, easy-to-prepare food items to children at risk of hunger during weekends and holiday breaks (when they don’t have access to school meal programs).

From September 10-24, area school buses were parked in front of Wegmans stores in The Southern Tier during this community-wide food drive. The Elmira City School District was one of five districts that loaned their buses to collect the food, and district bus drivers delivered the food to the Food Bank.

The Elmira City School District’s maintenance department is helping the Backpack Program by delivering the food to the schools on a biweekly basis, where it will be distributed to students who are at greatest risk of hunger. Thanks to the staff at the bus garage and maintenance for their invaluable assistance!

The Food Bank is on track to distribute 52,000 packs of food to children in need throughout the 2010-11 school year across 19 school districts.

December 1, 2010

Elks Club to donate dictionaries to district third-graders next week

Next Tuesday and Wednesday, representatives from the local Elmira Elks Lodge #62, a fraternal and community service organization, will distribute dictionaries to approximately 510 third-grade students at eight elementary schools in the Elmira City School District. This is the sixth year that the local Elks organization has done so.

Dictionaries also will be given to each of the schools’ third-grade teachers and all home-schooled third-graders.

The Elmira Elks Lodge is located at 300 Gray Street, Elmira, and includes approximately 600 registered members. The annual dictionary giveaway is national in scope and is coordinated by the Elks National Foundation. Dictionaries are distributed to schoolchildren nationwide by approximately 2,200 Elks Lodges.

Funds for the dictionaries come primarily from Elks members’ donations. In addition, all unions from the Elmira City School District donated funds to pay for the dictionaries.

These include the Elmira Teachers Association (ETA), the Elmira Schools Supervisory and Administrative Council (ESSAC), the Instructional Support Employees Association (ISEA), the Custodial, Maintenance and Cafeteria Workers (CMCW) and the Communications Workers of America (CWA LOCAL 1111).