Volunteers, union members prepare flowers for Teacher Appreciation Week

BREWER, Maine (WABI) - A group of volunteers and local unions spent their Earth Day preparing to celebrate educators in Bangor.

Members of Food AND Medicine, The Eastern Maine Labor Council, and the Maine and Bangor Education Associations gathered at the Solidarity Center to repot nearly 700 flowers Friday.

During the week of May 2nd, the flowers will be delivered with a meal from a local restaurant to every employee in the Bangor School System for teacher appreciation week.

Thanks to people who gave their stimulus money to Food AND Medicine, the organization will be buying the meals to help support restaurants in the area.

”It’s never really been super easy to be a teacher, but especially during the pandemic, they’ve faced a lot of really hard times. So, this is just a really great time for us personally and any volunteers that come help out, a chance to give back to their community and these people who are doing really important work,” said Jonny Sanchez, volunteer coordinator at Food AND Medicine.

“It’s always lovely when people take a minute to stop and say thank you where in this case, you know, a meal and this flower to really say we’re thinking of you, and thank you for all you did is wonderful,” said 6th grade teacher at Cohen Middle School Debbie Sykes.

Jack McKay, Director of Food and Medicine, says these initiatives are really part of a cycle to promote a sense of community togetherness and resilience.

If you’d like to help by donating or handing out the meals and flowers to educators in May, you can visit foodandmedicine.org.