Click here to view a slideshow from the Wagons Ho! event.

CRANSTON � When pioneers traveling West were faced with a threat, they circled their wagons and confronted the problems head on.

Students at St. Mary School took that idea and applied it to the threat of hunger and poverty facing their Cranston neighbors.

Last week, students in each grade collected non-perishable Thanksgiving favorites like stuffing, boxed mashed potatoes and canned vegetables and loaded them into small wagons to be transported to the nearby St. Vincent de Paul Emergency Food Center.

�We�ve got everything that goes into a Thanksgiving meal except the turkey,� said Principal Lisa Lepore.

The excited students lined up outside the school and pulled their wagons down the street, where parent volunteers were waiting to load the food into their cars and drive it to the St. Vincent de Paul Center. Brianah Torrens, an eighth grade student, has been participating in the annual �Wagons Ho� event for several years. She said the event is popular because �you can have fun while you�re helping people.�

While they all had a good time, even the youngest students understood the importance of their project. First grader Jeremy Mazzula said it�s important to donate to the people who depend on the St. Vincent de Paul Center �because they don�t have any food.�

�It�s a Thanksgiving dinner for the people less fortunate than us,� added seventh grader Alec Rolenda.

Once the food left the hands of St. Mary students it was received at the St. Vincent de Paul Center by the very grateful director, Richard Bianco. Bianco said that the center, which is open from 9 a.m.-noon on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays, serves about 200 families each month, giving them two weeks worth of food at a time.

Donations like those from St. Mary School enable Bianco to keep the center�s doors open: �We have no steady source of income, so something like this is just incredible.�

Still, the need, especially in these tough economic times, is always greater than they can meet. �We need a lot more food than we�re getting,� Bianco said, �we have new families coming in every time we open.�

He said that because of rising food costs and rising demand he�s had to spread food a little thinner lately. �We had to cut down on expensive things... I like to give eggs, had to cut it out.�

The center is staffed entirely by volunteers, many of whom have been there for several years and are no strangers themselves to hard times. John Pelli has volunteered for 20 years but said it�s his own life experiences that give him perspective about the current financial climate. �I was born and brought up in the Depression years so I know what it�s like... I know how tough it is.�

John Renza is another longtime volunteer, with 17 years at the St. Vincent de Paul Center and said that he can judge the economy by demand at the center. �We see it here, more people coming which tells you there�s need for this kind of operation. It�s getting worse� the numbers are getting greater, not smaller,� he added.

The intense dedication of the volunteers � �Wednesday, for me, is like a Holy Day of Obligation,� Renza said of his weekly volunteering � and the generosity of people like the students of St. Mary School keep the center afloat, though, during good times and bad. Bianco said he feels divine intervention has a role in their ability to keep up with demand, too: �He is taking care of us.�