Baking pies permeated the kitchen used by NHS Culinary Arts students on Oct. 27 when they made pies for the Neenah Community Table.

Culinary Arts teacher Mrs. Deb Garbe shared that she had around 125 students work together and make pies to help out the community.  Garbe explained the objective of the lesson.

“This was to teach kids a valuable lesson on not just how to make pies but how to give back to your community,” she said.

The Neenah Community Table expressed gratitude for the food and service the school has given. “This is the second year we have given food to the community table, and they hope to keep it going for next year.”

Garbe got the idea to help out the Neenah Community Table from her Key Club, which is a service program for high school students. The Key Club decided to serve lunch at the community table, and Garbe wanted to help.

When Garbe visited the Community Table, participants said that they would love pies and that sparked the idea of a great project for her culinary classes.

According to sophomore Rachael Luebker, “Students have fun making the pies.”

The classes worked diligently for three days and made over 75 pies for the table. “It was a great learning experience for the classes on the importance of giving back to the community,” Luebker said.

“It felt great to give back to the community,” she added.

The Neenah Community Table offered feedback.

“I was very happy to meet Mrs. Garbe last week and receive 75 pies that the culinary arts classes made,” site director of Fox Valley Community Table, Kathleen Wollersheim confirmed.

The organization hopes this new tradition continues for many years to come.