There has always been something good about the Thanksgiving holiday: sharing food, giving thanks, spending time with family and friends.
And that is a lesson that several Primrose Schools in Tarrant County hoped to instill in their students this month. The schools had students collect money from their parents by doing chores at home, and then pooled all that money together to buy non-perishable food items.
On Monday, about 60 students made a field trip to Mission Arlington to donate the food they purchased — more than $2,000 in canned and dry goods — so it could be used for Thanksgiving meal kits for families in need.
"For children, a lot of times they see boxes, they see canned foods, they see all this good stuff, but they don’t understand what happens after we collect it," said Stephanie Barfknecht of the Primrose School of the Mid-Cities in Hurst. "We want to encourage them to be good citizens, and we want them to understand that we take care of each other."
Tillie Burgin, who has been the Executive Director of Mission Arlington since 1986, noted that the donations from the Primrose students would help provide a Thanksgiving meal for 6,000 local families this year.
"The need is very, very urgent. Our phones ring constantly, people coming in, 'Can I just have some food?' It’s not just a Thanksgiving moment," Burgin said. "Many of our folks are sitting in a place where there is no stove, there is no way to get a dinner. Their children understand. So, we are getting food into those homes."
