Life Skills Students Raise 1,000 Donations for Hilliard Food Pantry

Written by Carrlene Webb

From November 11th to November 17th, the Life Skills unit at Darby conducted a food drive to benefit the Hilliard Food Pantry. For every two nonperishable items Darby students brought to their third period class, the Life Skills Unit exchanged for a hand-made brownie. Students were allowed to bring in as many items as they pleased, but could only get up to two brownies.

“Hey, everyone likes a brownie,” says Robert Shepherd, a teacher of the Life Skills students, “what’s a better way to inspire people to bring in canned goods than to give them a free brownie?” And that’s exactly what the Life Skills program did. They combined their Darby-famous brownies with a project to benefit the community, and the result was stupendous.

The Life Skills program helps students who have special needs get an education, and it equips them with the skills they need for life. They spend time in the classroom doing activities that prepare them for the workforce and practice social skills that help them in their day-to-day life.

The food drive is just one example of projects and activities these students engage in every day.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the Life Skills program held a Thanksgiving Feast. This was an annual tradition that had been going strong for 18 years, according to Michelle Griffith, a Life Skills teacher. “It has always been a way that we have given back to our school community and the families, just to bring everyone together for a meal,” she says.

COVID-19 has changed a lot of things within the district and around the world, and the Thanksgiving feast was no exception. However, the Life Skills unit still felt it was important to help out the community, even if they couldn’t do it the same way as they had in the past. So, teachers put their heads together and came up with the idea to host a food drive. “We kind of last-minute threw it together,” says Griffith, “but it ended up being a huge success.”

With the idea fleshed out and the approval of Assistant Principal, Mr. Olsheski, the Life Skills students got to work. They worked very hard, making posters, collecting and sorting cans, baking the brownies and more. Their hard work paid off, as the food drive brought in 1,000 nonperishable items to benefit those in need.

I met with the Life Skills students and teachers to get the inside scoop on the process from start to finish.

To start, the Life Skills unit advertised for the food drive by hanging posters, reaching out to the school announcements, and equipping third period classes with what they needed. Each third period class held a box for donations and a sheet students and teachers were to fill out whenever they brought donations. That way, the Life Skills unit knew how many brownies to distribute at the end of the week.

Life Skills students make posters to

advertise for the food drive. Photo

courtesy of Michelle Griffith.

After donations had been brought in for almost a week, the Life Skills students went around to each classroom to collect them. According to Max Perez, a sophomore in the program, this was his favorite part. He says helping other people makes him happy. He and Ali Alshamali, a freshman in the program, worked together collecting cans.

Ali’s favorite part of the food drive was “Riding the cart,” he said in an interview. He decided to have some fun by sitting on the donation collection cart while they wheeled around the school picking up donations for the food drive. Ali says knowing other people are happy because of something he did makes him feel “Extra happy!”

Ali Alshamali (left) and Max Parez (right) collecting donations from the drop boxes in the classrooms around the school. Photo courtesy of Michelle Griffith.

After the donations were collected, the students counted them up and then sorted them to make it easier for volunteers at the food pantry. “They were very functional tasks for our students that they might one day be doing as a job once they graduate from high school,” says Michelle Griffith.

The next step in the process was to bake those Darby-famous brownies. “The brownies have been a tradition at Darby high school in the Life Skills class for… probably like 18-20 years now,” says Michelle Griffith. The program bakes and sells them every Friday during lunch periods for 50 cents each. The proceeds go towards field trips, classroom activities, and Life Skills Track and Field Day. “…we bring in inflatables and games for all the elementary, middle school, and high school Life Skills students,” Griffith says, explaining Life Skills Track and Field Day.

Seeing as we are still in the midst of a pandemic, whether or not Life Skills Track and Field Day will be able to happen this year is still in question, but the program is holding onto hope that the tradition will be able to continue this year. “[The brownie sales allow] us the opportunity to spend money doing activities and planning for and buying activities that are very meaningful for our students,” says Griffith.

Daniel Moore (front) and other Life Skills

students sort donations. Photo courtesy of

Michelle Griffith.

Every week, the Life Skills students mix the brownies, sell them at lunch, and count the money they make. Daniel Moore, a junior in the Life Skills program says counting the money is his favorite part. He says he feels “happy” when he sees people smiling after they get a brownie from him. And certainly, the Life Skills unit made a lot of people smile when they delivered the brownies to each classroom in exchange for the donations brought in to the food drive.

“We know that our brownies are very popular here, and they’re very well-liked here, and we’re so appreciative of that,” says Michelle Griffith, “but we also want to encourage students to take the opportunity to learn about our students… along with [the brownies] being a very long-standing tradition, unfortunately there has been a long history of students who maybe don’t understand or think it’s funny to poke fun at our students.”

Each of the Life Skills students are unique and amazing people, and it’s a shame that people find it funny to make fun of others just because they seem different. “…just interact with [Life Skills students] like they’re any other person,” says Robert Shepherd, “…they have the same thoughts, they’re at the same interest levels… sometimes there might be a processing issue, so [the student’s response] might be delayed by a couple seconds, but overall you can have mostly a regular conversation, or treat them just as you would any other peer…” All the Life Skills students are incredibly kind and are always eager to offer you a smile or ask you how you’re doing. Spending time with these students is truly refreshing, and they’re really worth getting to know.

Griffith agrees with Shepherd, saying, “…not only are our students doing great things and helping our community and whatnot, but they’re also great kids. So come down and learn about our students instead of making assumptions, or poking fun...”

The food drive was a great success, and the Life Skills students are really helping the community out. They plan to run another food drive in the springtime and to raise even more donations. The project certainly impacted the community, and hopefully also made an impact on students at Darby, helping them recognize how amazing the Life Skills students truly are.