The Rosarian Academy’s National Junior Honor Society led a schoolwide gleaning event Friday, April 26 to provide food for those less fortunate in Palm Beach County. From pre-school through eighth grade, over 75 students, parents and staff members spent part of their school holiday picking corn later delivered to the Palm Beach County Food Bank and then distributed to local agencies and shelters that feed the hungry. This hardworking group of gleaners filled 241 boxes, totaling 7,500 pounds of corn.
CROS Ministries, the event organizer, works with local farmers to allow volunteers to glean, or pick, the crops that are left after the harvest. These crops are perfectly edible but do not meet supermarket standards. Each year, farms waste 52 million pounds of produce, demonstrating the importance of gleaning.
This community service project was the third gleaning event of the year for the NJHS, but Rosarian’s first effort as an entire school community. During the last two gleans, Rosarian students and parents picked 2,000 pounds of corn and 13,000 to 14,000 pounds of bell peppers for the Palm Beach County Food Bank.
Through this project, the students and families experienced the power of the Rosarian community making a positive difference in the lives of others through service.
Founded in 1925, the Rosarian Academy educates students in pre-kindergarten through eighth grade. The private, coeducational school is located on Flagler Drive in downtown West Palm Beach. For more information, visit www.rosarian.org.
ABOVE: Sixth graders Harper Murphy and Emma Quattlebaum glean corn with other Rosarian students, parents and staff in the background.
