Montessori Tides School has always had a strong emphasis on community service. By reaching out to the community, students see the greater community. We also know that sending students out to meet the needs of others provides great fulfillment and unique learning opportunities.
Thirteen years ago, one of our former students, Dawson Pickett, started a food drive for the local USO. At that time, Montessori Tides School agreed to participate in that worthy cause. During the following 12 years, Dawson was able to collect enough food supplies to feed over 2,500 families. Dawson is now at the University of Florida. In her absence, several MTS graduates have agreed to pick up this wonderful cause and continue Dawson’s work.
Every year around the holidays, our school community donates Publix Grocery Gift Cards to the school. Once we have collected the cards, our Upper-Elementary students will take a field trip to Publix and will purchase the food we will donate to the USO.
This community outreach is a wonderful learning experience for the students as they learn about giving to others in need while also learning about putting a meal together, budgets, the value of coupons, generic versus name brand, buy one get one, etc. We then take a trip to the USO and officially donate our purchases in time for the holidays.
Last year the elementary students were able to purchase $1200 worth of groceries for the USO. The receipt measured in at 22ft long!
Donate Now
If dropping off a Publix gift card is inconvenient we thought of a better way, make a donation through PayPal for the USO shopping trip.
