Creative Cooking and Culinary classes are collecting canned goods and non-perishable food to donate before Thanksgiving break to local food drives.

Donations will be given to a local shelter on Tuesday, November 25. This is the first year the entire school is able to participate. Donations can be dropped off in room B130 any time during the day.

“Some teachers are offering incentives for donating,” Marie Baker, culinary teacher, said. “[Students] can just come on in and leave their cans if I’m not here.”

Suggestions of food to donate include canned items such as soup or boxes of macaroni and cheese or other pasta. In addition to the food drive, students in the class also participate in a project called “Cooking for a Cause.”

“They make dishes, and we donate those dishes as well, like green bean casserole, potato casserole, and lots of pumpkin pies. We bring those to a homeless shelter as well,” Baker said.

Baker also hopes that one day she will have her classes volunteer at the shelters when they bring the food. In past years, Baker’s classes have donated to shelters in Chicago and to Saint Vincent’s in Lake Zurich.

“I like to do it during the first semester because it’s Thanksgiving season,” Baker said. “And just so students can reflect on the fact that they need to be thankful for having the ability to cook and eat whenever they want.”