Green-Fields Project Brings Cheer, Paper Goods to Camden Kitchen

Third-grade teacher Michele Elliott leveraged a popular privilege at Green-Fields Elementary School—faculty dress-down Fridays—into a schoolwide service learning project that benefits needy and hungry families in Camden City.

"My church sends groups of volunteers to Cathedral Kitchen in Camden on a regular basis," Elliott told Patch in an email.

"After working as a volunteer on two separate occasions, I was very impressed by the quality of the food they serve, the efficiency of the meal service, and the kindness and dedication of the staff members.

"This seemed like a great cause to have my students support as a service learning project," she wrote.

On Fridays, each staff member at Green-Fields can donate a buck to the cause for the privilege of wearing jeans instead of work clothes.

Elliott uses those funds to purchase paper goods for Cathedral Kitchen—take-away containers, napkins, cutlery, paper towels, water, toilet paper, and disinfecting wipes.

Her third-graders also make place settings and package the items during the dismissal process, "and the students work right up until their bus is called," Elliott wrote.

"With an average of 300 guests served each day, we know the Kitchen can use as many place settings as we can possibly make," she wrote. "Our first shipment contained over 4,500 place settings, and the students continue to make more!   

"The children enjoy making the placemats with colorful pictures and talk about how they want to cheer up people who come to the Kitchen for a meal," Elliott wrote.

Social service learning is "a big part of the curriculum" and "a K-12 initiative," said West Deptford Chief Academic Officer Kristin P. O'Neil.

"You’ll find students in all our grades focusing on the community," she said, from those participating in Alex's Lemonade Stand to those contributing clothing for earthquake victims in Haiti.

From an academic perspective, O'Neil said, each of those multiple projects is aligned to the New Jersey Core Curriculum content standards for social studies.

"We’re promoting citizenship, a sense of community, and a personalized investment for our children," she said.

"We are really focused on analyzing the standards and using data, but the staff of West Deptford believe the whole child is important. These skills should not be put aside."