YAKIMA, Wash. -- What’s Thanksgiving dinner without pumpkin pie?

Staff and students at Yakima’s Garfield Elementary School know Thanksgiving just wouldn’t be the same without it.

So they’ll be busy making about 50 pumpkin pies today.

The pies will be baked by the school’s kitchen staff, then donated to the Union Gospel Mission.

Representatives from the mission will stop by the school Tuesday to pick them up. The mission is hosting its annual Thanksgiving dinner from 1 to 3 p.m. Thursday.

This isn’t the first time schoolchildren at Garfield have helped out. In fact, this is the 20th year of Garfield’s great pumpkin pie project, according to district spokeswoman Mary Beth Wright.

For more information, call Garfield Elementary School at 509-573-5700.

-- Adriana Janovich