At Jefferson Community College, the spirit of giving was weaved into 75 thanksgiving baskets and more than 1,800 individual items for students.
Beginning in the fall of 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, volunteers comprised of Jefferson faculty and staff took ownership of the campus food pantry to organize its first Thanksgiving Basket drive to meet the needs of students facing food insecurity. With support from the Jefferson Foundation and an outpouring response from the campus community, the food pantry furnished 49 thanksgiving baskets. The following year, members of the campus community were back in-person and the thanksgiving basket drive continued resulting in 38 baskets for students. Now in its 3rd year, 75 Jefferson students will receive a basket this month.
Gabrielle M. Thompson, Director or the Food Pantry and Interim Dean of Students at JCC, says “Most impressive is how contributions came from not only employees but also from JCC clubs, in particular the School of Business, Leadership and Career Skills (BLCS) Club who alone donated five baskets.”
Jordan Flagg, president of the BLCS Club says, “It’s something we’ve done for a couple of years. We love to help our campus community and we never know when it’s someone in our club who may need help so essentially, we are helping both our campus community and potentially our own.”
Each thanksgiving basket includes two cans of corn, one can of cranberry sauce, two cans of sweet potatoes, two cans of green beans, one can of olives, one jar of pickles, two packages of gravy, one can of evaporated milk, two cartons of broth, two cans of pie filling, one bag of mini marshmallows, two boxes of pie crusts, two boxes of stuffing, one box of instant potatoes, a $25 gift card, a Thanksgiving card or note and a poem from Sister Juliana Raymond, College Chaplain.
Jefferson’s food pantry is a partner agency with the Food Bank of Central New York and is supported by the JCC Foundation.
