当地家庭为地区家庭组装感恩节篮子

Sara Staker, a mother to five students who’ve attended Provo schools, didn’t build her first Thanksgiving Feast Basket knowing she would someday pioneer a tradition of city-wide service. It started, as Sara shares, as a half-cooked hope to offer one meal for a single family.

萨拉的大儿子今年已经 23 岁了，但在 17 年前，他还只是 Westridge 小学的一年级学生。那一年，萨拉有好几次机会去儿子的班级做学生的助手，其中很多学生都面临着比其他人更具挑战性的环境。

"Sara 指出：「你不禁會注意到，有些孩子冬天沒有保暖的外套或靴子。「當同樣的一些學生似乎比其他人更渴望贏得有禮物和食物獎品的遊戲時，你也會情不自禁地注意到」。

As a parent, Sara had a firsthand account of the economic discrepancies between students. So, rather than accepting that knowledge passively, she took action. After speaking to Westridge Elementary’s receptionist, Sara and the school coordinated a basket full of Thanksgiving food for a family needing a Thanksgiving Dinner.

Sara’s family gathered turkey, potatoes, gravy, corn, green beans, stuffing, rolls, cranberry jelly, a pumpkin pie with whip cream and a bottle of Martinelli’s Sparkling Cider to organize a basket to be anonymously gifted.

That year, one Westridge family in need celebrated Thanksgiving with a little more than they expected, thanks to Sara and her family.

几年来，Staker 一家一直延续着他们的传统，只制作一个感恩节篮子，交给学校送给社区里需要帮助的家庭。他们甚至从邻居那里收集捐款，并在 Westridge 设置了一个食品储藏室，作为她儿子的鹰童子军项目。从食物储藏室的频繁使用情况来看，萨拉知道需求比许多人可能意识到的更为广泛。

最終，Sara 和她的家人開始每週為 Five.12 基金會提供義工服務，該組織每週為食物短缺家庭的兒童提供滿載食物的週末背包餐。第一年，Sara 和她的丈夫 Matt 每週為 Westridge 小學送去近 30 份食物。知道這個數字後，Sara 希望能為學校的孩子們做更多事。

于是她想到了一个主意。她联系了几位朋友、邻居和家人，她知道这样的要求并不过分，于是他们一起为 Westridge 的 30 个孩子制作了 30 个感恩节餐篮。从那时起，她的小行动就越做越大。

"我们厨房里挂着一块木牌。上面写着：'当你拥有的多于你所需要的时候，要建造更长的桌子，而不是更高的围栏'。'我们一直努力秉承这一理念，在我们的家庭中营造一种管理和服务文化，但事实上，它已经在我们的社区中得到了广泛的分享和实践。"

Sara realized they could call on the Grandview community to feed even more families across Provo City School District. They added Franklin Elementary several years ago, and are now serving Dixon Middle School as well.

One of Staker’s sons created a Sign-Up-Genius web page to post requests for needed ingredients for the baskets and organize community donations. Families districtwide send food and money for the baskets so quickly that the window to contribute is typically only a day or two long before it is all filled. Sara’s family takes any leftover funds and writes checks directly to each school’s food pantry.

篮子装好后交给各学校的社工和教师志愿者，由他们将篮子送到有需要的家庭。

在我们简短的采访中，萨拉想重申的是，这个故事是关于普罗沃的。

"整個 11 月，我對人類重新燃起了信心。因為提供這些餐點的不只是我們一家人，而是整個社區。這是鄰里互助。家庭幫助其他家庭。有這麼多人關心我們，只是不知道如何與需要幫助的人聯繫。

「我喜歡我們是社區的一員，我們會聚集在一起，關懷我們自己的人。這不只是膳食，而是我們的姿態"。

The Staker family hopes that other families at other schools across Provo might feel the nudge to do something similar.

For those interested in donations, reach out to your school to see how you can donate to your pantry. Or, to donate to Dixon’s new Panther Pantry, please visit their donation page.