What is better than a home-made apple pie at Thanksgiving! For Newton Country Day freshmen, the real meaning of Thanksgiving starts the Saturday before the holiday as they gather around flour dusted tables in the school dining room.

Arriving at school on November 19 with bags of apples, apple corers and peelers, rolling pins, and bountiful energy, the Class of 2015 rolled up their sleeves, and in teams with faculty and mothers, spent three hours rolling out pie crusts and combining apple slices with sugar and spices to make 50 apple pies to donate to the Community Servings’ “Pie in the Sky” fundraiser. This is the third consecutive year the freshmen class generously has given time on a Saturday to make and bake pies for Community Servings.

The 19th annual Pie in the Sky fundraiser is the nation’s oldest and most far-reaching pie sale for charity. Proceeds from the ninth grade apple pies, along with the 15,000 apple, pumpkin, pecan, and sweet potato pies made by prestigious Boston area pastry chefs and local volunteer cooks, go directly to Community Servings, an organization that provides almost 400,000 meals to Greater Boston area critically ill individuals and their families. Meals from Community Servings not only feed those suffering the dual hardships of a life-threatening illness and poverty, they keep families intact and provide hope for those unable to leave their homes. The purchase of one $25 pie provides a week’s worth of meals to a critically ill Community Servings’ client.

Listed on the “Pie in the Sky” website among the region’s 150 renowned bakers that include restaurants, hotels, country clubs, and culinary institutes, is Newton Country Day School - the only high school “Pie in the Sky” baking team.

Organized by Class Dean Ms. Melissa Bleakney, the Sacred Heart Pie in the Sky teams set out to mix, knead, and roll dough for flaky crusts, and ease them into pie tins. Other teams peeled, cored, and sliced apples, then dusted them with cinnamon, nutmeg, and sugar. To finish their masterpieces, the freshmen mounded apple slices into the pie shells, carefully fitted a top crust, and learned to seal and decoratively flute the edges. Then they sprinkled the pies with a little cinnamon sugar and baked them in the school ovens. Once cooled, the pies were boxed for Community Servings to pick-up and deliver.

“Pie in the Sky” has become a Community Servings and a community building tradition for the Newton Country Day freshmen classes. While the pies were set to the side to cool, the pie-baking teams enjoyed dinner together – a celebration of community and generous outreach.

View a slideshow of the Class of 2015 “Pie in the Sky” service project.