Branford Future Farmers of America members once again brought out the wagons and collected canned goods during the Thanksgiving school break. Several years ago, Branford High School started a food drive for families in the area and the FFA conceived their own red wagon food drive which involved students literally pulling wagons around different neighborhoods in Branford to collect food items for those in need.

“We had two things happen,” said FFA advisor Stacy Young. “We had a food drive on campus where we encouraged classes to bring in canned items to compete.”

Young said the winning class with the most items belonged to BHS Art teacher Vaster Fryar and the students were rewarded with a pizza party.

She said the FFA and some BHS faculty selected the evening of Nov. 18 to roll with the red wagon food drive.

“They walked from house to house asking for food donations,” said Young. “This was really important because the FFA has gotten really big on fighting hunger because of the population growth. We have to figure out a way to solve this.”

She said their students had to humble themselves by knocking on a stranger’s door to ask for food. Young believes the program is productive two-fold because it’s good for the community and good for the students because it gives them an idea of what it’s like being a person in extreme poverty.

“They could experience what it was like to be hungry and have to count on someone else,” said Young. “That’s why we do the red wagon. It teaches them what it’s like to ask a complete stranger for help.”

She said they collected enough to feed 15 families.