MILLTOWN – The students at Parkview School demonstrated a “domino effect of kindness” through a cereal box challenge for their donation to the Middlesex County Spring Food Drive.
Some 1,380 boxes were collected within 10 days. On April 5, the 362 students in pre-kindergarten through grade 3 gathered for an assembly in the school’s gymnasium to learn which class collected the most cereal boxes.
“This was our first ‘post pandemic’ assembly with the entire school gathering in the gym,” Principal Eric Siegel said. “This cereal box challenge brought the school together even closer for such a wonderful cause.”
Siegel, along with staff members Shelley Mate, Emma Hernandez, Sierra Grocott, Lexie Shemesh and Ray Nesser, displayed the collected cereal boxes as a neat “domino effect.”
“It took about two hours to set up,” Siegel said.
The Middlesex County Spring Food Drive began on March 21 and continued through April 1. Students were asked to bring in canned and packaged goods only.
In conjunction with the food drive, Parkview School hosted its first Cereal Box Food Drive Challenge. Students were asked to bring in a new, unopened box of cereal.
“We do the food drive every year; however, the cereal box ‘domino effect of kindness’ is something we added this year,” Siegel said.
The top three collection classes received surprises, which were announced at the assembly.
First place went to Shelby Fabiano’s third grade class with the collection of 272 boxes. The class will enjoy a pizza party.
Second place went to Shemesh’s first grade class with the collection of 234 boxes. The class will enjoy an ice cream party.
And third place went to Jen Topham’s first grade class with the collection of 119 boxes. The class will enjoy an ice pop party.
The cereal boxes and the canned and packaged goods were donated to the Middlesex County Food Organization and Outreach Distribution Services (MCFOODS), now called Replenish, a collaboration between the Middlesex County Improvement Authority and Board of County Commissioners providing access to fresh, nutritious food and other basic necessities to residents, according to Middlesex County’s website.
Through additional partnerships with local government, schools, nonprofits, volunteers, businesses, churches, social groups and other organizations, MCFOODS gets as much as 1.9 million pounds of food annually which is distributed to over 120 food pantries and meal centers and thousands of people in 25 municipalities throughout Middlesex County.
For more information, visit discovermiddlesex.com/collaboration/mcfoods/.