NJ school district plays cereal dominoes to benefit food pantry

🔵  Keyport schools  took part in National Cereal Day with a unique challenge

🔵 They collected cereal boxes and created a domino chain

🔵 The cereal was later donated to the town's local food pantry

KEYPORT — For many years, the Keyport Public School District and the Keyport Ministerium Food Pantry have formed a partnership with each other with one goal in mind: to help the less fortunate in their community.

They developed a community partnership elective at The Central School for middle school students and with that, part of their experience is to volunteer at the food pantry, said Lisa Savoia, the superintendent for the Keyport Public Schools.

Every month, the school district does a different collection each month to be donated to the food pantry whether it’s peanut butter, canned foods, or whatever is needed.

The Keyport Ministerium Food Pantry, which is open on Tuesdays and Thursdays, serves thousands of residents from 20 to 25 towns in the region, said Director of Operations, Natalie Lawson-Smith, who is also a lifelong Keyport resident and attended school in the district.

She said over the past 10 years, she noticed a similar trend around spring break and that was the pantry’s low supply of cereal boxes, particularly kids’ cereals. Many children participate in the schools’ breakfast and lunch programs. But when spring break hits, they are home, still needing three meals a day, and relying heavily on the food pantry for such items.

But kids’ cereal was never in surplus at the food pantry and cereal is one of the most expensive items for families to purchase, Lawson-Smith said.

So, two years ago, she and Savoia put their heads together to come up with an idea that would not only lead to more cereal box donations but would also be fun for kids, while raising awareness about food insecurity in their small four-mile town.

Savoia saw a video about a school somewhere else (not New Jersey) that did a giant domino chain of cereal boxes, and she thought this was a great idea. She introduced the concept to the schools’ principals and Lawson-Smith. Everyone loved it, and so the project began.

Last year, 450 boxes of cereal were collected and the domino chain went down one hallway at Central School on National Cereal Day on March 7, 2023.

Fast forward a year later. The school district wanted to partake again in National Cereal Day on March 7, 2024.

Savoia said this year, 1,100 boxes of cereal were collected throughout the district starting in January. Then, on March 7, students from the high school volunteered to set up the domino chain at The Central School.

But instead of one hallway, the chain went through three halls and down a flight of stairs as the kids cheered on from both sides of the hallways.

Check out the video below.

“It went from the pre-k wing all the way down the flight of stairs down our second hallway by our gym and our music area and then all the way to the main office,” Savoia said.

After the domino chain went down, which took no more than 10 minutes, the high schoolers collected the boxes of cereal, and all 1,100 boxes were then taken over to The Keyport Ministerium Food Pantry.

The hope for next year is to incorporate the high school in some way whether that means setting up the domino chain to go outside and across the street or to do the upper floor of Central School and have the high schoolers up there to watch that happen.

“There is a lot of giving that goes on here. Giving and getting have to be reciprocated. So, for our kids to know it’s okay to accept help when they need it and also to give help, I think is a beautiful thing,” Savoia said.

The school district not only does monthly food collections for the food pantry, but they also do The Backpack Program, Savoia said.

“Every few months we have families that have signed up and we’ll send food home with them, so it extends outside of the cereal challenge. It extends into the classrooms and letting kids know that they can volunteer, that they can help, that they can receive because there’s never a time anybody’s any better than anyone and they need to know what it’s like to give and to receive,” Savoia said.

Lawson-Smith said she loves to do things to get the students, especially the younger ones involved through community partnerships so they can learn how to give back to the community.

“I want them to understand that even though they see this on TV, a lot of the kids don’t think it’s in their backyard. So, you have to make it visual and you have to make them understand that yes, it’s not just what you see on TV, somebody right here next door to you or who plays on your basketball team, might not be able to have that same meal that you have,” Lawson-Smith said.

So, the cereal challenge is a great visual to get kids of all ages excited to want to collect, want to donate, and want to help.

She said she remembered around Thanksgiving she told the kids in the school district that she needed 700 cans of corn to feed families so they could have all the trimmings with their turkey dinners. Kids went home and told their parents that they needed to collect all these cans of food to help out their friends. Lawson Smith said this warmed her heart that children want to help.

Now that she’s set with cereal (until next year’s Cereal Day Challenge), her pantry is in desperate need of juice boxes and kids’ snacks.

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