Meet Cheerios’ new cereal box ‘superstar’

Lynette Marsicano of Manville in photo on a box of Cheerios cereal

By:Mary Ellen Zangara
   Lynette Marsicano of Manville is the latest champion to appear on a box of Cheerios cereal — but instead of earning the distinction for athletic excellence, Ms. Marsicano and three Hillsborough residents are being recognized for helping to fight hunger.
   Ms. Marsicano, Tammy Brucculeri, Traze Hoerst and Tracy Brown are among 60 Shop Rite employees featured on the box.
   The four represent the Hillsborough store, which took first-place honors in a group of 50 stores competing over the summer to raise money for hunger awareness. The June competition challenged Shop Rite associates to design attention-getting store displays to make others aware of the hunger problem.
   Both Ms. Mariscano and Ms. Brucculeri handled the store’s promotion, taking just 20 days from start to finish to plan all the functions. At the end of the event, the store had raised $13,300 for local food bank.
   "We helped out 90 families for the Easter holiday … it’s a good cause," Ms. Marsicano said about last year’s store event which also ended with her photo on a Cheerios box. "You really don’t know how many families use the food bank — over 90 families … 500 people … about 1 percent of the Hillsborough population."
   A special ceremony was held last week to kick off the promotion with General Mills, makers of Cheerios, featuring the local "cereal stars" and officials from Shop Rite and General Mills. This included Peter Capell, president of General Mills cereal company; Hillsborough resident Joe Sheridan, executive vice president of Wakefern (the parent company of Shop Rite); Bob and Nico Sumas, the owners of Hillsborough Shop Rite; and store manager Guido Ferrara.
   "This program is a partnership between Shop Rite and General Mills for over six years now and in that time we have raised over $11 million to combat hunger in the community," Mr. Capell said. "We believe very strongly in the program that’s a program that ties in with the GM values of giving back to the community that we operate, live and work."
   The store organized a Halloween parade, bake sales and other events to raise the money.
   The store celebrities are excited to be featured on the cereal boxes but note the campaign’s success in helping others is a better feeling.
   "It is great that Shop Rite has a program like this that we can help the people in the community," Ms. Brown said. "It was nice that all the customers were so generous."
   Ms. Brucculeri, the store’s front-end manager, is one of the four Hunger Fighting Superheroes profiled on the side panel. She was chosen for special recognition from the nominating essays submitted by her co-workers.
   "We are so excited not only to have our picture on the box, it is an honor," Ms. Brucculeri said. "We raised a lot of money and a lot of awareness and had a lot of fun. It makes me feel happy we helped a lot of people. We are grateful that our customers showed us support because without our customers, we wouldn’t have raised all this money."
   Store manager Guido Ferrara was proud of his employees. "They did an excellent job. I am very proud of all of them especially Tammy (Brucculeri). She went up and above than anyone could for hunger in Hillsborough," he said.