Tappan Zee High School COVE students have been working together to assemble bags of supplemental food assistance for the SOCSD Food Pantry, which was recently relocated to TZHS in November.
TZHS COVE students have been working alongside TZHS Business teacher Darrell Flynn’s classes to help run the school store, Z-Mart, during lunch periods and manage inventory for the student-managed vending machine, Z-Box. Now, the Food Pantry is acting as an additional in-house opportunity for students to gain hands-on job skills to help them prepare for post-secondary life.
“These students do everything to prepare for the monthly food donations. They go shopping each week for the food with the gift card donations that we receive, they unpack the bags of food donations that are delivered by volunteers, they organize the shelves so it’s sorted by each type of non-perishable food items that we collect and manage inventory in the computer so the Family Engagement Center knows what we may need more of,” explained TZHS COVE Special Education teacher Lori Slackman. “They have been so amazing since we started working here.”
The SOCSD Food Pantry, which was initially launched in November 2020 in response to pandemic-driven need, provides South Orangetown families in need with supplemental food assistance on the third Thursday of each month. The Food Pantry is open on the first Thursday of each month, 4-6PM, at the TZHS main entrance to collect food donations. For a list of suggested donation items, visit our Food Pantry webpage: www.socsd.org/food-pantry. Families in need of assistance should email socsdcares@socsd.org.
