Darden Child Development Center hold lemonade stand food drive event

The Nancy W. Darden Child Development Center's Preschool-4 class held a lemonade stand on April 3. The catch being instead of selling cups of lemonade, participants could exchange a food item to donate.

Stankija Purvis, also known as Ms. Kiki, a member of the Preschool-4 team, said that the children's goal was to accumulate as many food items as possible to donate to the Purple Pantry on April 10.

According to East Carolina University's website, the Purple Pantry was designed to decrease food insecurity among students on campus. Purple Pantry provides a range of food and hygiene items students may need. Anyone can donate and ensure their classmates have a nutritious meal.

The children set up their freshly squeezed lemonade in the development center's lobby area on a homemade stand. Kiki said the children have been working on their lemonade recipe to prepare for the big day.

They decorated the walls with handcrafted signs that the preschoolers wrote and planned all by themselves. To prepare for the event, the preschoolers have been checking out books about lemonade at Joyner Library, as said by Shannon Hall, another member of the Preschool-4 class.

"That's always a big thing I like to stress with the preschoolers. How fortunate they are and that we can help others,” said Tawni Mosley, the Development Center director.

Tawni added that the teachers plan on making the lemonade stand a yearly tradition so that future preschoolers can learn about the importance of giving back. "I love community service, and that, to me, should be a passion in a preschool," said Tawni Mosley.

"Throughout the last couple of months, all of the things that they've been teaching them, this is such a good culminating project," Mosley said. The Preschool-4 class has been learning about the marketing side of selling a product and giving to their community for the past couple of months.

Shannon Hall, member of the Preschool-4 team, expressed how excited she was for the children to see all their hard work come to fruition and that they did. The children worked as a team and collected enough donations to help the community and give back to those in need.