It takes a lot of people power to move 6,500 pies across Salem.
A dedicated group of about 100 citizens are on the task.
On Wednesday, volunteers will deliver personal pies to every school employee in the Salem-Keizer School District. That means driving cases of cherry, peach, strawberry rhubarb, marionberry and apple pastries to 87 schools and buildings.
The logistical feat is organized by the Salem Leadership Foundation and community volunteer Jackie Franke, with volunteers from the Assistance League of Salem-Keizer and Salem First Church of the Nazarene.
It’s intended to boost morale during a time of turmoil. Teachers and school support workers both finished bargaining contentious contracts earlier this year. Layoffs for hundreds of school employees loom as district leaders seek to cut millions from next year’s budget.
“With all the things happening in the school district, we just want the teachers and the school staff to know that we support them,” said Jenn Palanuk, community partnership coordinator with the Salem Leadership Foundation.
The same groups organized a pie delivery in 2022. It was intended to show support for the hard work of educators returning to school from the Covid pandemic.
Franke ordered 6,540 pies — enough for each school employee, plus some extras for other nonprofit organizations and in case anyone got left out. The retail cost of those pies would be $38,000, but Willamette Valley Pie Company let the organizers have them for the amount they were able to fundraise — $18,000.
The effort recognizes teachers, as well as the other workers who help students be successful in school.
“It’s the janitors, it’s the bus drivers, it’s the aides,” Franke said.
Volunteers gathered Tuesday morning at the church on Northeast Market Street as a pie company worker unloaded pallets from a truck.
Workers opened the boxes to affix a thank-you card to each pie, then began sorting them into piles for each school or site getting a delivery.
Franke coordinated with a printed list detailing the number of employees at each drop-off and how many cases of pies would be needed.
Topping the list were McKay and North Salem high schools, each requiring 38 cases of pie.
Pies are going to all charter schools in the district, as well as offices like Student Support Services where employees work with students.
School cafeteria workers, employed by contractor Sodexo, will also get pies, Franke said. The group was inadvertently left out in 2022.
Volunteers on Wednesday will pick the pies up at the church and deliver them to their assigned school. Some drivers will visit multiple smaller schools, but high school deliveries are large enough to fill a car, Franke said.
And if a school winds up short?
“They can always call me and we’ll get more pies,” Franke said.
Contact reporter Rachel Alexander: [email protected] or 503-575-1241.
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Rachel Alexander is Salem Reporter’s managing editor. She joined Salem Reporter when it was founded in 2018 and covers city news, education, nonprofits and a little bit of everything else. She’s been a journalist in Oregon and Washington for a decade. Outside of work, she’s a skater and board member with Salem’s Cherry City Roller Derby and can often be found with her nose buried in a book.
