NORTHFIELD — Raucous applause erupted in the Northfield Elementary School gymnasium on Tuesday afternoon as Principal Kristen Schreiber announced to students, teachers and staff members the number of items collected during the annual food drive.
The total? Five hundred and fifty-two food items.
“One of the things that makes it really impressive is that it’s an opportunity for the entire school to be doing something together, and giving back to the community,” Schreiber said of the food drive. “So, it starts with classrooms collecting items, the fourth grade is counting all of the items, but then we’re all delivering it together.”
The students exited the gymnasium and formed a line that stretched to the crosswalk across from Dickinson Memorial Library. From there, food items were wheeled across Main Street to the library, where Northfield Regional Food Pantry volunteers collected the donations. The food pantry is housed in the library’s basement.
One hundred and sixteen students formed the chain from the outside of the school to the crosswalk, passing each donation to the person on their left, one by one.
The chain didn’t stop inside the library, where the nine students in Carolyn Baskowski’s fourth grade class continued passing the items to the food pantry, after members of the sixth grade class had wheeled the items across the street in a cart.
Baskowski said the food drive has been going on for “15-plus years.”
“The idea of passing the food has remained at the root of it,” Baskowski said.
Students at Northfield Elementary School form a human chain transferring collected food to the food pantry located in the basement of Dickinson Memorial Library on Tuesday. Credit: PAUL FRANZ / Staff Photo 
Students at Northfield Elementary School form a human chain transferring collected food to the food pantry located in the basement of Dickinson Memorial Library on Tuesday. Credit: PAUL FRANZ / Staff Photo 
Northfield Elementary School sixth graders Ella Worden and Carson Dlugosz push a cart with collected food across Main Street to the food pantry located in the basement of Dickinson Memorial Library on Tuesday. Credit: PAUL FRANZ / Staff Photo
Baskowski, who shared that she plans to retire at the end of the 2027-28 school year, said this idea stemmed from a similar initiative in Keene, New Hampshire.
“We realized we had [a food pantry] right here in our community,” Baskowski said. “We’re so close, we could line up and do it really visibly. [It’s] a great way to have children get involved in the community.”
The initiative is led by the fourth graders, who paired up and went to different classrooms at Northfield Elementary, letting their fellow students know that it was time for the annual food drive once again. While there are only nine fourth graders at Northfield Elementary, Baskowski called them “small but mighty.”
In addition to all the items donated to the food pantry, the fourth graders got to work on their math skills in the lead-up to the event, practicing addition as donations came in.
Two sixth grade students, Ryker Zingler and Quinn Hall, said they had been waiting to steer the cart holding the food since they started at the school, with Ryker joining Northfield Elementary as a kindergartner and Quinn as a preschooler.
“It feels really different, because I’m so used to passing,” Ryker said as he passed the donated items from the cart to the fourth graders lined up inside the building. “I guess I’m still passing.”
“I’ve always wanted to do it, and then this year, I’m finally doing it,” Quinn added.
According to Schreiber, the food drive tradition isn’t just something that the students in fourth and sixth grades look forward to. Since the start of the school year, children throughout the school have been excited for this afternoon of giving back.
“This is something that the kids look forward to doing as an event, but also being the leaders as fourth graders,” Schreiber said. “The younger kids all look [forward] to having a chance to support [the food pantry].”
