WEST SPRINGFIELD –  Each year, the West Springfield Church of Christ hosts a school supply giveaway for the families of the Mittineague Elementary School. This year, due to the hardships many families are facing because of the coronavirus, they’re also hoping to provide those families with food assistance as well, but need the community’s help to make it happen.

Gareth Flanary, who serves as the pastor of the church, told Reminder Publishing the church partnered with the school and their staff more than five years ago to host their very first school supply drive. “We do a school supply giveaway every year in August because we are right next door to Mittineague,” he said.

He said due to the Church of Christ being “a small church” and their proximity to the school, they “try to limit it to the families at Mittineague.” Flanary said in previous years, children were able to enter the church and then pick out their school supplies. He said after that, the church would “follow that up with ice cream sundaes.”

This year, however, due to the coronavirus, the church will be hosting their supply giveaway via drive through. “This year with COVID, we’ll just be doing a drive through and the principal and superintendent have approved all of that,” he said. Another change to this year’s drive, Flanary explained, was the addition of a food drive to benefit the families of the elementary school.

“We’ve added the food drive because of the circumstances, so this will be a first attempt at that,” he said. Flanary explained, “During the drive through, kids will get their package school supplies, and the family will get a food box or bag, whatever is available.”

Flanary said before deciding to add the food drive to the annual event, he used outlets such as community forums on Facebook to see if people would be willing to participate. “With the food drive, I wanted to see first if there was any interest in the local community to help support that,” he explained. The interest he received, he said, “was considerable.”

In light of the interest, he set up days in which people could drop their donated items off at the church. Flanary said he’s encouraging those wanting to participate in the food drive to buy an additional bag of non-perishable groceries including the following items:
• Microwavable chili
• Microwavable soup
• Pasta sauce
• Boxed or microwavable macaroni and cheese
• Taco seasoning mix
• Chef Boyardee
• Cake icing
• Pouches of fruit snacks
• Canned or microwavable vegetables
• Breakfast bars
• Granola bars
• Cake mix
• Pop Tarts
• Taco shells
• Applesauce cups
• Muffin mixes
• Rice packets
• Small boxes of raisins
• Fruit cups
• Oatmeal packets
• Canned meat
• Animal crackers
• Goldfish lunch packs
• Pancake mix
• Popcorn packs
• Syrup
• Peanut butter
•Jelly
• Spaghetti
• Pudding cups

Flanary said it would be most helpful to the church if people could buy the specific quantities needed for each bag and put the grocery bags together. “What I had suggested was if people could donate a full, complete grocery bag with those items like two breakfast bars or whatever the list is. Then that would save us from putting it all together,” he said.

However, he said donations of individual food items are also welcome and would be appreciated. Flanary added that the church would also likely get monetary donations “that will help us go buy products as we need to fill up the bags.” He said, “But hopefully, we can get as many filled bags as possible. It would make it a little easier on us.”

Once donations are collected, he said, the church would work to put bags together in time for the school supply drive on Aug. 9. He added that he put a lot of microwavable items on the list to make sure it would be convenient for the families receiving the food.

“Everything’s a little bit family friendly, everything can be put together fairly quickly. Instead of canned goods, we wanted to get the things that are microwavable so we can minimize the need for a heavy box,” he said.

He added that while school supplies will be given out to families at the same time, the church has all the school supplies they need. “Food donations are preferred,” he said. Should they receive any new school supply donations, Flanary said they will be added to what the church has already purchased.

Food donations can be dropped off at the West Springfield Church of Christ at 61 Upper Church St. at the following dates and times:
• July 25 from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m.
• July 27 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
• July 29 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
• Aug. 1 from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m.

Anyone with questions should call the church at 297-1286 or visit the church’s Facebook page for more information at https://www.facebook.com/West-Springfield-Church-of-Christ-103268011271395/. Specific amounts of food items needed can also be found on the Facebook page.