The smell of cinnamon and mashed sweet potatoes filled Toll Gate Grammar School on Wednesday as second through fifth graders worked elbow-to-elbow with parents, caregivers, and staff, turning the cafeteria into a lively pie-making assembly line. By early afternoon, they had baked 150 sweet potato pies — each one headed to the Trenton Area Soup Kitchen (TASK) in time for Thanksgiving.
The annual project has been part of Toll Gate’s culture since 1987, when a small group of families first organized a holiday food donation. Nearly four decades later, the scope has widened but the spirit remains the same. Every grade level plays a role. Younger students create decorations and help roll silverware. Families donate stuffing, green beans, cranberry sauce, and other nonperishables. Girl Scouts bake cornbread. And on pie day, the school buzzes as more than 100 volunteers work alongside students to peel, mash, mix and pour.
“It’s really special,” said parent organizer Suzanne Elliott, who helps coordinate the multi-day effort. “We deliver all the nonperishables first so TASK has what they need early in the week. Kindergarten and first grade make the decorations. And then the pinnacle is the pies — 150 of them this year, all delivered this afternoon.”
On Tuesday, Toll Gate’s fifth graders visited TASK to see exactly where their work would go. As part of the visit, students helped decorate the dining room with the handmade artwork from kindergarten and first grade for the Thanksgiving meal service and toured the kitchen and prep areas.
Principal Melissa Lauri said that experience is what connects the dots. “The most meaningful part for the students was what occurred yesterday,” she said. “They got a tour of the facility, and now they know where those pies are going. They know that Trenton Area Soup Kitchen serves thousands of meals a week. It really makes an impact.”
TASK is the only soup kitchen in the Trenton area open six days a week, including most holidays, and works with more than 50 community meal sites across the region — from Trenton to Princeton, Hightstown and Bucks County, Pa. Through its partnerships with schools, nonprofits and community organizations, TASK provides more than 12,000 meals a week to individuals and families experiencing hunger.
For many fifth graders, seeing the operation up close made the pie-baking feel more real.
“I am so happy we can make pies for people that don’t have anything on Thanksgiving,” said fifth-grader Alice Pieri.
“Getting to visit TASK helped us see how we are making a difference,” added fifth-grader Noah MacFarlane.
Parent volunteers stood alongside students throughout Wednesday morning, steadying mixing bowls, guiding hands-on potato mashers and helping pour filling into crusts. Laughter and teamwork ran through each table as trays of pies took shape, ready to be boxed and transported to Trenton.
For Debbie Gwazda, who founded the tradition in 1987 and still lives in Pennington, seeing it continue brings deep pride. “It makes me so happy to think that a town like Pennington can continue this tradition,” she said. “Very little has changed since those first days because it just worked. It’s as close to pride as I can get, knowing it made a difference in people’s lives.”
She added that she’s met adults who remember making pies as children — and now their own kids are taking part.
By early afternoon, Toll Gate families were leaving for the holiday break and pies were cooling waiting to be delivered to TASK, where they’ll be served as part of a holiday meal that reaches far beyond Trenton’s borders. For the students who mashed, mixed, and decorated, it’s a hands-on reminder that Thanksgiving is at its best when shared.
And as all the students were reminded, the secret ingredient in every Toll Gate pie has never changed: “A pinch of Toll Gate love.”
