Anyone with an available refrigerated truck should contact Bernadette Morten at 737-0747
By John Tredrea, Staff Writer
There must be at least one of them somewhere out there in Hopewell Valley.
A refrigerated truck, that is. If you have one you’re willing to lend out for a day, you can help make a big difference to a lot of people this Thanksgiving.
Toll Gate Grammar School’s TASK (Trenton Area Soup Kitchen) organizers are in need of a refrigerated vehicle from 6 p.m. Nov. 25 through noon the next day.
This will mark the 22nd consecutive year that Toll Gate students, parents, friends and staff will ensure a special holiday for the area’s neediest residents. This year, the Toll Gate community will take 1,000 Thanksgiving dinners to TASK.
Anyone with an available truck is asked to contact TASK co-Chairwoman Bernadette Morten at 737-0747.
Among the items on the truck will be 250 sweet potato pies. Continuing a longstanding tradition, Toll Gate students roll up their sleeves in the school cafeteria during Thanksgiving week to make the pies and get them ready for delivery.
The event’s organizers are asking the community at large for donations of cooked turkeys, which will be gratefully accepted at Toll Gate on the evening of Nov. 25, when Toll Gate’s dads bring their knives to carve up many platters of roast turkeys. (Frozen turkeys also will be accepted for TASK to use at a later date.)
In addition to the turkeys, collections going on right now at Toll Gate include cans of green beans and gravy, boxes of stuffing, ingredients for pies, as well as cash donations. Meanwhile, area preschools are doing their part by making cranberry relish, Boy Scouts are packing brown-bag lunches, and area Girl Scouts are baking cornbread.
Cindy Davidson’s third-grade class will help deliver the food and decorate the TASK cafeteria on Wednesday morning, just in time for Thanksgiving dinner.
”We truly appreciate any and all donations,” said event co-Chairwoman Molly Mahn, of Pennington. “For the people of this community to continue to provide for those less fortunate, even in these economically challenging times, gives true meaning to the celebration of Thanksgiving.”
Joining Ms. Mahn and Ms. Morten in coordinating this year’s undertaking is Kristin McGeeney — all of Pennington.