Calhoun cooks a feast for a cause

“In a community like this, you don’t really think about families struggling, but year after year, we have more and more families in need,” said Liana Sventoraitis, social worker at Sanford Calhoun High School. “We have such a caring school, and it’s really important to us to help.”

The way the school helped, for the third straight year, was to organize a Pre-Thanksgiving Dinner, with proceeds going to purchase groceries and gift cards for local families who are struggling to make ends meet.

Sventoraitis worked with high school Principal David Seinfeld and a group of volunteers at the school, including teachers, staffers, administrators, PTA volunteers and students, to cook and serve a traditional Thanksgiving dinner for colleagues and community members in Calhoun’s cafeteria. “Everyone volunteers to cook or to bring a dish,” Sventoraitis said.

“People spend their time and energy to do this,” Seinfeld said. “It’s easy sometimes if you are fairly well off to write a check [to a charity]. It’s a different sense of service to cook a turkey.

“It’s a festive event where we can sit down together, break bread,” Seinfeld added. “It is something that, more than other school-based fundraisers, is adult-based, rather than student-driven. Sometimes we have to model our behavior.”

This year’s feast, which took place last Friday, raised about $1,600, through admission tickets ($10 for adults/$5 for young children) and raffles of donated items. Local merchants, including Suburban Meats and Rattlesnake Jones restaurant, donated food for the meal, while others contributed items and gift certificates for the raffles. About 20 prize baskets and other items were raffled off this year, with prizes ranging from Guess watches to New York Islanders hockey tickets.

“A side benefit [of the dinner] is that the families in the community feel that the school supports them,” Seinfeld added. “It’s been a tough year.”