Montville - Staff members of Mohegan Elementary School used to participate in a holiday gift drive where they gathered presents for families selected through a social services agency.

Then some of them wondered: Why not do the same for their own students?

About six years ago, they started doing just that.

The school provides Thanksgiving and Christmas meals, as well as holiday gifts, each year for about 15 families facing situations of financial hardship.

"They were in the pattern of giving to other causes and then realized, let's keep it right at home," said Principal Allison Peterson.

The gift and food drive is a year-round task. Kindergarten teacher Lisa Halloran raises money throughout the year by selling snacks to other staff members. That money goes toward purchasing the items that are distributed.

Selection of families for each season starts in October when school nurse Betty-Clare Waselik makes calls to typically 60 or more families to find out what kids could use a pair of winter boots supplied through the Santa Anonymous Boot Project.

When making the calls to parents and guardians, Waselik "puts out feelers" to find out who might need some help, asking those who accept the boots if they could also use Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner supplies.

Barbara Mann, who now works as a substitute teacher for the district, and her son and daughter were recipients of the gift drive seven years ago when her daughter was a student at Mohegan. At the time, Mann's husband had recently passed away.

"I was very distraught and unfocused during Christmas," Mann wrote.

And thankful, she said, that staff at Mohegan made it possible for her to put presents and winter wear including boots under the Christmas tree for her children. She said that with family nearby, she did not need a food basket.

Waselik assigns numbers to recipients so that staff members don't know who they are supporting when they buy gifts or food. Each year, one or two families of students also step forward to sponsor families.

Tags for gifts with numbers go up on a tree in the staff room. This year, about 75 tags hung like ornaments from the tree, one for each item, according to Halloran. Staff distribute two items of clothing and one toy per child, she said.

Come December, the gifts started streaming in - and staff had to find a way to get those items wrapped and hidden out of sight of students. Halloran emphasized the importance of discretion in gathering and distributing gifts.

"We gave to take into account privacy for the family," she said.

Waselik described how one year, her own office "looked like the North Pole" with presents and food overflowing.

The goal with food donations is to give families more than what they need for just a special dinner, according to Peterson. She said in an October interview that the inclusion of peanut butter, pasta and other goods hopefully tides over families during the break while children are away from school.

Montville Public Schools Superintendent Brian Levesque said that financial hardship is prevalent throughout the town and its schools. He said Oakdale Elementary School and Dr. Charles E. Murphy Elementary conduct drives similar to the one at Mohegan.

"We all have needs here in Montville and I think our schools are doing a great job of supporting them throughout the year," he said in a phone interview about a week before Christmas.

The rate of free and reduced-price lunch recipients is 35.6 percent districtwide, according to Levesque. At Mohegan, the proportion of students who receive free and reduced price lunches is 45.3 percent, he said; the percentages at Oakdale and Murphy are 26.5 and 40.9, respectively, he said.

The statistic is often used as an indicator of poverty.

While the drive is kept under wraps from students, Halloran said she believes the kids still pick up on the model of staff members giving. She mentioned as an example the Thanksgiving food drive that fifth-graders are involved in and other service projects for students.

In an October interview, Peterson described how, after the holidays, kids will return to school wearing items that staff bought them. Waselik chimed in to say how pleased she was to know the students had what they needed for the season.

"You know that their feet are warm," Waselik said.

t.townsend@theday.com

Twitter: @ConnecticuTess