Students learn about giving

This past summer, the school's PTA decided they wanted to plan a school-wide effort to give back to the community.

The students at Columbia Elementary school learned that giving to others is one of the most important things one can do.

This past summer, the school’s PTA decided they wanted to plan a school-wide effort to give back to the community.

“Luckily, in Madison, we have a Food Bank-Inside Out Ministries that offers assistance to those in need and we decided to give our proceeds to them,” said PTA President Piper Moore.

Moore said the children at Columbia spend so much time working in the classrooms and learning their subjects that they also wanted to teach them life lessons.

This time of the year we all think food banks need holiday foods but Moore said she was surprised to be given a list of basic needs.

“We then decided to give the students a list of items we needed brought in on specific days,” she said.

Moore said each day the students brought in different items. On Mondays, students were designated to bring in SpaghettiOs and ravioli. Tuesdays they bought in Ramen noodles, Wednesdays canned tomato products, Thursday’s canned meats and on Fridays condiments and salad dressings.

“This list opened all of our eyes to see how the simple things are the items needed throughout the year, not just holiday foods,” said Moore.

The children started the week out with great participation and it continued the entire week.

“The food drive is important because it is for people who don’t have any food,” said Kaitlyn Hockey a kindergarten at Columbia.

Moore said all of the items have been delivered to the food bank . The final count: 2,505.

“We are so glad we were able to help them and I hope this becomes a yearly tradition at Columbia and our students realize that something so small can make such a difference for others,” Moore said. “Columbia Elementary students should be proud of themselves for helping the community and others in need.”