By Robin GOLDSWORTHY

It started with the idea of baskets – specifically Thanksgiving baskets.
Alexandra DiRuscio, PTA president of Glenoaks Elementary School, with her PTA members was considering creating Thanksgiving meal baskets for those in need within their school community. Knowing that the Glendale Unified School District works closely with families in need, DiRuscio called Dr. Ilin Magran, director of Student Wellness Services at the District, to get her input.
“During our conversation, Dr. Magran mentioned that the District usually does something similar each year of providing a Thanksgiving meal basket to the most in-need families in our District, including foster kids and those experiencing homelessness, but the food pantry was empty,” said DiRuscio.
COVID-19 had drained the resources of the District, leaving some families in need. With Magran’s blessing, DiRuscio decided to organize a project of collecting enough food to create 40 to 50 baskets – though DiRuscio admits her ideal goal was 100 baskets.

Her first stop was contacting PTA Council President Rebecca Johnson to get her okay before emailing all the PTA presidents in the District for help; DiRuscio knew that it would take a consolidated effort to quickly collect enough food to fill 40-50 baskets.

Johnson gave the thumbs up, the email went out and within a day of talking to Magran, District PTA presidents had filled a sign up sheet committing to items that were needed.

“This was amazingly encouraging and so cool to see,” said DiRuscio.
The requested items included Thanksgiving staples like boxed mashed potatoes, gravy, canned vegetables, cranberry sauce and grocery gift cards. With a giving heart, other items were donated that weren’t requested like cereal, granola bars, canned fruit and applesauce, among others.

Time was a factor as Thanksgiving was quickly approaching and only about a week was available for the completion of the project. But the importance of the project was not lost on the District schools and because of the dedication of their communities over 2,000 items were collected including over 100 $20 grocery store gift cards. Participating schools were Balboa Elementary, Council PTA, Crescenta Valley High School, Dunsmore Elementary, Franklin Elementary, Glendale High School, Glenoaks Elementary, Hoover High School, Keppel Elementary, Lincoln Elementary, Monte Vista Elementary, Mountain Elementary, RD White Elementary, Rosemont Middle School, Toll Middle School and Valley View Elementary.

“These schools showed up,” said DiRuscio.

Due to the generosity of the school communities, the District was not only able to provide 100 baskets of food but had additional donated items that helped fill the food pantry to continue offering support to District families.
At Glenoaks Elementary, 765 items were collected; Lincoln Elementary collected over 200 boxes of dessert mixes and Franklin collected over $900 to purchase 45 of the grocery store gift cards.

Valley View was one of the participating schools; it provided over 400 jars of pasta sauce for the food drive.

“The community response was overwhelming!” said VV Principal Brook Reynolds. “We are surprised with the response of the community sending 417 jars! When we first reached out, we had 40 jars. We put out a message that we wanted to reach 100 jars and in two days we reached 417 jars. More than ever we know that there are many people in need and we are doing our best to help them.”

The pasta sauce will go to the Glendale Unified School District food pantry to help all families within the District.

“My theme as PTA president this year has been Stronger Together, so a project like this was completely reaffirming to just how true that belief is,” said DiRuscio.

The achievement was not lost on District personnel.

“Alexandra and the whole team have been amazing,” said Magran. “I’ve never seen PTA so determined and committed to their community.”

Accomplishing a goal of this magnitude reminded DiRuscio of how grateful she is to live in such a giving community.

“Being a part of Glenoaks is truly what allows me to be free to be passionate and intense in my pursuit of big ideas and projects like this,” she said. “We have an amazing and engaged school community and a principal [Dan DiMundo] who always has our back.”

Lori Bodnar contributed to this article.