JAY – Students in Dan Lemieux’s woodworking class divided apples and oranges into bags to add to 20 food baskets set up Wednesday on the stage at Jay High School.

They also added some of the hams to help Student Council members who had decorated the boxes prior to filling them with nonperishables.

It was a school systemwide effort to collect the food, Lemieux, the council adviser, said.

Food was collected by all the schools and the Middle School put together five of the boxes on their own, Lemieux said.

The high school Student Council bought an additional $140 worth of food including cereal, fruit, carrots and candy canes, he said.

Verso Paper donated 15 spiral sliced, cooked half-hams to go in the boxes.

All of the boxes had a ham by the time they were filled.

A school social worker identified the families who needed the extra boost of a food package this season.

“I think it’s really great for the community because not everyone can afford what they need,” Joe Roy, 15, a student in Lemieux’s woodworking class and a member of the Student Council. “This takes an extra burden off during the holidays and brings families closer together because they’ll sit down together to have Christmas dinner.”

Roy placed a ham in one of the boxes before moving on to another basket.

“I love it,” Shane Lefebvre, 16, said. “I think it’s just nice giving people who need food, food. It’s the time for giving.”

Student Council member Hannah Gettle, 16, said the council worked together to get things done so they could deliver the boxes Wednesday morning.

“It’s just community service; giving back to the community,” she said.

As the boxes were finished, members of the Police Department, Highway Department and the animal control officer arrived in town vehicles and helped guide students to load the baskets.

Then it was time to go with a town employee and two students and multiple baskets to a vehicle as they drove off to deliver the packages around town.