Number of Participants: 1000
Hours Donated: 1
Value of Time Served: $8,450
Event Type: Hunger
Sport: Schools
Date: February 28, 2022
Location:
North Bellmore
NY, USA
About:
Hundreds of cans of soup, vegetables and other nonperishable goods filled boxes at schools throughout the North Bellmore School District, which held its annual Souper Bowl food drive.
Throughout the first two weeks of February, students and staff could place their donations in the box that represented the team they thought would win this year’s Super Bowl, the Cincinnati Bengals or the Los Angeles Rams. After the big game, donations were delivered to the Community Cupboard, a food pantry run by the Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District at Brookside School.
“It’s fun because a lot of people are excited about the Super Bowl, and it’s also good because it’s helping others,” said Nora Daly, a fifth grade student council member at Martin Avenue Elementary School.
Martin Avenue’s student council made posters that were hung throughout the building to promote the food drive.
On Feb. 15, members of Saw Mill Road Elementary School’s student council traveled to the Community Cupboard to help sort donations from all five of North Bellmore’s elementary schools. Saw Mill alone contributed about 540 cans of food.
Greg Arlin, the high school district’s executive director for alternative education, began the hour-long visit by bringing children to the two-room Community Cupboard. Students walked through the aisles of shelves stocked with food and learned how the food pantry benefits people right in their own community. They then traveled to the cafeteria where they worked together to fill reusable shopping bags, each with seven cans and 12 packages of noodles.
Photo captions:
1: Martin Avenue Elementary School student council members, joined by Principal James O’Brien, organized this year’s Souper Bowl food drive.
2: The student council from Saw Mill Road Elementary School visited the Community Cupboard at Brookside School on Feb. 15 to see where all of the food donations from the North Bellmore School District will go.
3: Saw Mill Road sixth graders Lia Galante, left, and Kaitlin Ciuffo filled a bag with cans of soup and other nonperishable goods, which were donated by students and staff throughout the district.
4: The first order of business for Saw Mill Road student council member Liam Sullivan was checking expiration dates on cans.
Photos courtesy of the North Bellmore School District
