Savannah Ulrich, Mitchell Intermediate School sixth grade ambassador, decorates one of the food baskets the ambassadors will fill with food for Travis Intermediate School students. The school teams up with Travis Intermediate each year to provide Thanksgiving meals for 50 families. Photo by David HopperStudents at Mitchell Intermediate School in Alden Bridge are busy decorating festive food boxes in preparation for their Travis/Mitchell Thanksgiving Project.

Every year, Mitchell students provide nonperishable food items for Travis Intermediate families, as well as certificates to purchase turkeys. Each classroom at Mitchell is responsible for a different nonperishable item. There are 12 items on the list this year, including canned corn and instant mashed potatoes.

Travis, meanwhile, will receive 75 frozen turkeys from Fellowship of The Woodlands.

On the Monday before Thanksgiving, 24 sixth-graders from Mitchell will head out to Travis in Conroe for a day of socializing and box-filling.

All together, 100 Travis families will receive a box of Thanksgiving fixins’.

“It’s a great thing Mitchell does for our families,” said Travis Intermediate School Principal Jean Anne Gloriod. “And it gives our students an opportunity to work together as well, doing something good for the community.”

Mitchell Intermediate Principal Paula Klapesky said it’s an annual event that began 10 years ago.

“It’s a tradition we’ve developed,” Klapesky said. “I can’t imagine not doing it.”

Meanwhile, at Interfaith of The Woodlands, shelves are ready for donations of nonperishable holiday food items, said Public Relations Manager Ginny Berry.

“We are asking the community to host a turkey drive and donate turkey or funds to support the purchase of turkeys for our families,” Berry said.

Doris Golemon, executive director of the Montgomery County Food Bank, 111 S. 2 Street in Conroe, said they are also asking corporations, service clubs, churches, just about anybody, to step up to the plate and host a turkey drive.

“We have a refrigerated truck we can park right in front of their business,” Golemon said.

“I’m really, really concerned about what’s going to happen over the holidays.”

Golemon said they don’t prepare Thanksgiving meal boxes, but they are trying to get turkeys so they can pass them out to some of the 36 nonprofit agencies they serve.

“Thanksgiving isn’t the only time people are hungry, it’s just more pronounced that day because of our traditions,” Golemon said. “We are in desperate need.”

Golemon said they’re feeding 32,000 people a month, whereas in January 2009, it was 16,000.

In Magnolia, families continue to sign up for Thanksgiving meal boxes at Society of Samaritans, 31355 Industrial Lane.

Director Judy Everett said they already have 200 families waiting to be sponsored, but she expects that number to at least double in the next couple of weeks - which means they also need more sponsors.

“The sponsors take care of everything that family would need to prepare a traditional meal,” Everett said. “We want them to be able to cook it themselves, so they can have a regular Thanksgiving just like everybody else.”

Everett said volunteers from local churches, service clubs, nonprofit organizations, the police and the Chamber of Commerce sponsor some of the families. The Society of Samaritans then fills boxes to try and fill the gap.

Boxes contain turkey, corn, green beans, sweet potatoes, cornbread mix, onions and celery for dressing, canned milk, a dozen eggs, tea and Kool aid.

The Monday before Thanksgiving, the boxes will be delivered right to the families’ doorsteps.

“And then as soon as Thanksgiving is over,” Everett said, “we start on Christmas.”

Turkey drive:

Who: Hewitt Associates

When: 8 a.m. Wednesday Nov. 11

Where: 2601 Research Forest

For: Montgomery County Food Bank

If you would like to host a turkey drive in benefit of the Montgomery County Food Bank, call 936-539-6686.

Holiday food drive:

Who: Villa Sport and Athletic Club

When: 7 a.m. – 6:30 p.m. Nov. 13-14

Where: 4141 Technology Forest Boulevard

For: Interfaith Food Pantry

For a full list of Interfaith Food Pantry Holiday needs, visit http://www.woodlandsinterfaith.org/objects/FoodPantry_flyer.pdf

If you would like to hold a food drive on behalf of Interfaith, visit http://www.woodlandsinterfaith.org/objects/Coordinate_a_Food_Drive.pdf