Communities In Schools of Northeast Texas (CIS), in collaboration with Brookshire?s and Super 1 Foods, coordinated the Spirit of Christmas Food Drive again this year.††This is the 15th†year that CIS has collected and distributed food to families during the holiday season.
Many of the children served through Communities In Schools participate in the Free/Reduced Lunch Programs at their schools. When they are out of school, their families are burdened with coming up with extra money for all of those additional meals that the children will need at home. This can be a significant problem for families that are already struggling to make ends meet. The Spirit of Christmas project helps those families by providing nutritious food items that can sustain them through the holiday season.
?This is a great example of people in our community coming together and working hard to support others who are less fortunate this holiday season. This event absolutely could not be done without the generous support from so many different businesses, organizations, and individuals,"†Melody Henry, Associate Dean of Outreach Services/Executive Director for CIS of Northeast Texas Community College,†said.
According to Henry, CIS relies†heavily on the support of many area businesses and organizations, including a large food drive held by Verizon and a toy drive held by Mt. Pleasant Cinema 6.††This event also involves many volunteers including NTCC student organizations.††The NTCC Ag Club and Rodeo team took trailers to area schools to collect donated food items.†The NTCC Baseball team and Softball team worked to sort and box all of the food items, along with some National Junior Honor Society students from Harts Bluff.††NTCC?s Student Government Association held canned food drives and participated in an Angel Tree project. Also, the administration and teachers from many of our area schools participate by adopting angels from the angel tree at their school.
?This is a good opportunity to help our community while teaching the value of community service to our college students.††It benefits everyone involved," Henry said.
This year, through multiple collaborative efforts including the Spirit of Christmas, CIS provided food to 771 families and gifts to 1,072 students in the four county area served by CIS.
CIS takes a holistic approach to help students succeed by addressing their physical, emotional, and academic needs though a wide range of services.†The CIS program is partially supported through state funds but relies on community donations to ensure that local schools and students have strong CIS support.††Please help support CIS, the largest dropout prevention program in the nation and the only one proven to significantly decrease dropout rates and increase graduation rates, by donating to CIS through the NTCC Foundation.
