Bartlett Elementary School in Manchester, New Hampshire, which serves approximately 200 students,
raised $2,227 through the 2025 Hannaford Helps Schools program.

It’s been very positive. It’s easy to participate in, which is probably the key factor; the easier it is, the more support you get from people. It’s also meaningful because it directly benefits our students. Parents appreciate that Hannaford is so conveniently located in our neighborhood, making it easy for them to contribute without a big commitment or a lot of extra effort. Parents are busy, and kids have very full schedules these days, but every little bit makes a difference.

"It's also meaningful because it directly benefits our students"

It’s pretty collaborative in terms of how we advertise the program. Flyers go home with students: our office staff makes sure the flyers get to the teachers, and then the teachers send them home.

At the beginning of the year, we also share information in our newsletter, which our principal publishes weekly, every Thursday. She sometimes takes snippets from the newsletter and posts them on our Facebook page. So, it really is a team effort between the office staff and the classroom teachers.

But again, I think it’s mostly our families spreading the word. They’ll say, “Hey, this is a super easy thing to do,” and they must be sharing that with each other, because it really seems to have gotten out this year.

We mostly use the flyers that go home at the beginning of the year. Any handouts that go home are kept in a small library of materials by our front door for families to pick up when they come in. I’m pretty sure it also went into our newsletter at the beginning of the year, and we use Facebook consistently as well. Together, these help us reach families in multiple ways.

Families are the primary participants, but teachers also play a supporting role by encouraging students to bring flyers home, putting materials in their mailboxes, and offering reminders.

Because we're a small school, we really function as a team. Many of our staff live in Goffstown, which helps, since it’s a neighborhood store. Whenever staff go there, they often say, “I ran into one of our students and their parents,” and the kids are always surprised to see their teachers outside of school.

They’ll say things like, “Oh, you don’t live at school! What are you doing here? You grocery shop?” And we’re like, “Yes, we do!”

So, while the whole school community is involved, the families are really at the center.

"Because we're a small school, we really function as a team."

Overall, nothing major has changed. Over the past two years, we’ve been using our social media and newsletter a bit more consistently than we did before. We now send the newsletter to families electronically, so they receive it right away, which helps.

Our families are always happy to support the school, especially, as I mentioned, when they can do so in a low-commitment way. That’s not a negative; people are simply very busy.

"Our families are consistently enthusiastic about supporting
our school, and we're very fortunate in that respect."

When they know, “I can just scan my receipt or drop this off at school,” they’re more inclined to participate. The more convenient we make it, the more involvement we see.

Our families are consistently enthusiastic about supporting our school, and we’re very fortunate in that respect.

It’s really important for schools to build relationships with their community partners.

The fact that Hannaford is willing to support our school so often shows that they care about education and are willing to invest in our community. As I mentioned before, we have students who have grown up and gone on to work there part-time, and we also have parents who work there.

It’s important for kids to know that their community supports them. The more local businesses that become part of the school, the stronger that connection becomes. It really makes us a stronger school system.

"It's important for kids to know that their community
supports them."

We received a generous check this year, and we’re very thankful for it. We use those funds mainly for experiences such as field trips and author visits.

We also hold a school-wide reading event where we purchase books for all of our families, and we read the book together as a school. This year, we’re reading a book about sled dogs, so we’re having a musher come with her dogs. We’ll read the book in January and February, and then the musher will visit. After that, the Iditarod begins, so the kids will be able to follow it. They’ll go home, see it on the news, and say, “I know what a sled dog is!” It really comes full circle.

These resources really provide extra opportunities beyond the classroom, which is so important for our kids and helps build a strong sense of community. At our all-school meetings, we try to explain this to the students. We don’t tell them the exact amount of money we received, but we’ll say things like, “When you do fundraising through programs like Hannaford, that helps us pay for these special visitors.” We want them to understand that they’re very fortunate to have these opportunities, because not all schools do.

We always hope to continue raising funds so that we can expand opportunities for our students. I don’t know that we have any specific goals in terms of numbers. We’re always looking for ways to provide enrichment for our students, and this is one of those experiences that falls outside the typical classroom scope. We feel very fortunate to be able to offer it through the extra funds we receive.

Thank you so much. We are very grateful for your support. We are a small school with only about 200 students, so a program like this truly makes a big difference. It directly impacts our students, and we feel very fortunate and thankful.

Posted January 22, 2026.