United in Service

Service is a natural extension of our school’s religious identity and commitment to educating morally centered students. Service initiatives are part of the curriculum in early childhood through upper school, and we provide many opportunities for students and families to unite in service both locally and globally.

Our approach to service is not just about helping. In age-appropriate ways, we focus on building relationships with the organizations we partner with, and with the people whom those organizations serve.

Thanksgiving 2020: Continuing Our Tradition of Giving

 The Thanksgiving Food Chain is among our school’s most beloved traditions. For the last 27 years, students, faculty, and families in nursery through eighth grade have passed food and supplies from hand to hand—from our Chapel, through our doors, and down the street to stock the pantry at Broadway Presbyterian Church.
 
Health and safety concerns have changed the soup kitchen’s dinner service this year, and so we can’t hold the Food Chain in the same way. Instead, our Food Chain is virtual—students and families created cards and donated grocery store gift cards to distribute to our neighbors in need this holiday season.

Love Thy Neighbor

Our neighbors at Broadway Presbyterian Church and its Four-Star Soup Kitchen (half a block away) are our frequent partners. In addition to providing food and supplies through our Thanksgiving Food Chain and February Food Drive, our students connect personally with the people who dine and receive services there. Through the sixth-grade religious knowledge curriculum, students create relationships with the staff and patrons of the soup kitchen and food pantry. They visit regularly, playing board games or otherwise just spending time in conversation. As these relationships grow, students move beyond their own concerns to think about the injustices that their new friends face, and about how they can help to change those injustices for the better.

Our younger students, too, get involved, making cards and decorations that brighten the soup kitchen, or baking desserts to sweeten their meals. They visit to drop-off their creations, so that they know whom and how they are helping.

Other frequent service partners include Amsterdam Nursing Home, Episcopal Relief and Development, and UNICEF. 

 

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