The big yellow bus parked outside a school in West Hartford on Friday was full of good will. It was Bugbee Elementary School’s first Fill-A-Bus event.
This was a food drive that was super-sized. Over the past few days, Bugbee students collected as many food donations as they could. We are told they gathered more than 3,700 items this week. Friday it was time to fill the bus all to help the West Hartford Food Pantry, which often struggles in the summer months. The bus was given an artistic touch on the outside, and kids delivered their donations to the inside.
“It’s very high in the winter, in the holidays, when people are thinking about it, but hunger doesn’t take a vacation,” she said. “So we really had the kids engage and talk about it. We might be on vacation, but hunger isn’t.”
The students, parent and the school teamed up with Foodshare, and they say the Fill-A-Bus project will feed more than 700 families this summer.