LIBERTY, NY — Two days before Thanksgiving marked the fourth year that the Culinary Arts Program at the Career and Technical Education Center at Sullivan BOCES and the second grade class at Tri-Valley Central School have worked together to provide Thanksgiving pies to less fortunate Tri-Valley families.

Smiles filled the student’s faces as they put on their chef’s hats and started to work with the Culinary Arts students peeling apples and mixing the ingredients to make their pies. Colin Monell, second grader, said, “I’m having a lot of fun today. I really like to smash the apples. The best part of today is that we are making pies for people who don’t have food for Thanksgiving.” Once the pies were baking, everyone had the opportunity to make their own pizza for lunch and decorate cupcakes for dessert. Leighanne Russell, second grade teacher at Tri-Valley, started this initiative five years ago when she wanted to create a project to teach her students how to give back to the community. This year, they prepared 50 pies.