North Bellmore students see impact of food donations

After collecting food for a week, a group of students from Saw Mill Road Elementary School got to see the impact their donations will make. Schools throughout the North Bellmore District participated in the Souper Bowl from Feb. 6-10, with students and staff encouraged to bring in canned goods like soup and vegetables. 

Those donations were delivered to the Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District’s Community Cupboard on Feb. 14. That morning, 22 members of Saw Mill Road’s student council went to the Cupboard at the Brookside School to learn about the facility that helps about 50 families per month, providing food, household goods and personal hygiene products. Eric Arlin, Catrina Christensen and Karin McMahon explained its mission and operation, and showed students the two rooms where food and other goods are stored.

In the cafeteria, students unpacked food from more than two dozen boxes of food, that reflected the collective donations from North Bellmore’s five elementary schools. They checked expiration dates and sorted items. 

“It made me feel happy to know that Bellmore and Merrick are such great communities where we donate to people in need,” said sixth grader James Canner, “and people in need have a way of getting help.”

James said it was heartwarming to see how much food was on the shelves in the Community Cupboard, knowing that it was all the result of community donations.

Cadence Greene said it’s always good to help people in need, especially within their own community, and knows that the food donated by North Bellmore students will make a big difference.

 

Photo captions:

1: Members of the Saw Mill Road Elementary School student council visited the Community Cupboard at the Brookside School on Feb. 14 to see where their donations were going from the district’s Souper Bowl food drive. 

2: Sixth graders, from left, Lila Radigan, Madison Anderson and Anyah Lewal checked expiration dates on the donations. 

3: Students, including Nicholas Kute, helped out Community Cupboard staff by writing the expiration dates in large numbers on the cans. 

4: Saw Mill students learned about the Community Cupboard’s impact from Greg Arlin, the Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District’ executive director for alternative education.

 

Photos courtesy of the North Bellmore School District