Delivering gifts to Poland Community School guidance counselor Lexie Triggiani and school nurse Louise Robinson were Poland Spring employees (in their Santa hats) Adam Keach, Keith Proteau, Clint Bivens, Shelly Pittman and Jessica Tanguay.

Employees from the Poland Spring bottling plant donned Santa hats and went out into the community recently to make two special holiday deliveries. Their first stop was at the Poland Community Church Food Bank, where they presented a check for $1,800 to Rose Frost, director of the Mannafed program, which provides backpacks of food to RSU 16 students to bring home on weekends and during school vacations. Their second visit was to Poland Community School, where they unloaded gifts of toys, books and clothing to benefit three local families in need.

For several years, the company’s original plant in Poland has worked closely with the Poland Community School and the Town of Poland to identify students whose parents may be struggling to provide gifts. Based on a list of the families’ needs, tags are created for various items and placed on a “Giving Tree” at the bottling plant. Employees then choose a tag and purchase the corresponding item. This year, employees also decided to designate a portion of funds awarded to the plant for operational excellence by parent company Nestlé Waters North America (NWNA) to augment the effort.

“We are grateful to our neighbors at Poland Spring for supporting the holiday Giving Tree,” said Melanie Chasse, Assistant Superintendent of Schools for RSU 16. “The families who received the gifts were overwhelmed at the generosity and are very grateful.”

Poland Spring employees also voted to give a portion of the NWNA award funds to the Mannafed program, which provides RSU 16 students with backpacks of food to bring home on weekends and during school vacations, when they won’t have access to school meals. The $1,800 donation will be used to purchase food for the 60 families that benefit from the food distribution program.

“Mannafed is a community service that supports our neediest school families, and Poland Spring’s contribution will help keep the program going strong,” said Assistant Superintendent Chasse. “We are so thankful to the employees at Poland Spring for making food insecurity a priority.”