Students in the Fifth Avenue Elementary school leadership club are supporting their local community through a partnership with Mission Belly Full. The organization, which is based on Long Island, hopes to end hunger within the local community through food donations to homeless and women’s shelters, veterans and churches. Students put together 115 snack bags, including bagging them and labelling the containers, to be donated to the organization.  

The club has 32 students participating and is run by AIS teacher Virginia Fitzsimmons and third grade teacher Michele Maldari. Dr. Fitzsimmons became familiar with the organization through a mutual friend, and students were eager to support the cause.  

“I believe this is a really important cause for the students to work with because they get actual, hands-on activities to work on,” said Dr. Fitzsimmons. “A lot of our activities involve raising money for causes, so this charity is unique in that the students get to actually put something together, feel a connection and have an understanding that they are really helping others.”