Students step up to make a difference
Winners of 2008 Holiday Hunger Challenge to be announced Dec. 1
BY CHRISTINE VARNO Staff Writer

aERIC SUCAR staff Students from the Seashore School in Long Branch drop off bags filled with donated food at the FoodBank of Monmouth and Ocean Counties in Neptune on Nov. 20.

Students throughout Monmouth and Ocean counties are doing their part this holiday season to make a difference in the lives of those less fortunate.

The FoodBank of Monmouth and Ocean Counties, based in Neptune, has challenged all public and private elementary, intermediate and high school students in the two counties to partake in a special food drive.

The Holiday Hunger Challenge is aimed to increase an "unusually" low food supply at the FoodBank, as well as to provide complete family meals to those in need this holiday season.

"The challenge has given students the chance to help their communities," said FoodBank Special Events Coordinator Kate McMahon. "It has given the students a sense of empowerment.

"This is just a wonderful way to have a community involved," she said, adding, "It is kids helping kids and kids helping families."

PHOTOS BY ERIC SUCAR staff Above: Students help carry food into the FoodBank of Monmouth and Ocean Counties. Left: Students from Monmouth and Ocean counties participate in the Holiday Hunger Challenge.

When McMahon started at the Food- Bank last year, she said that school participation was an untapped resource.

"But schools are always looking for ways to get involved with community programs," she said, explaining that the Food- Bank decided to reach out to the school community and launched the 2007 Holiday Hunger Challenge.

In its first year, 43 schools and 23,000 students stepped up to the challenge and collected a total of over 25,000 pounds of food.

The event was such a success, that the FoodBank once again decided to challenge students of Monmouth and Ocean counties to compete in a race this year to see which school could collect the most pounds of food.

This year, 65 schools and 35,000 students are participating in the hunger challenge, and McMahon said she is hoping that the schools will collect close to 35,000- 40,000 pounds of food this year.

"Our food supply is low with the economy the way it is," McMahon said. "People are being forced to choose at the end of the month between paying rent or fuel costs.

"It is getting tougher and tougher for people to survive," she said. "That is what we are here for. We serve 70,000 people a year, and right now the demand for service is up 32 percent and the supply is down 17 percent.

"These kids can really make the difference," she added.

Schools from throughout Monmouth and Ocean counties are participating in the challenge, including schools from Long Branch, Eatontown, West Long Branch, Monmouth Beach, Middletown, Millstone, Holmdel and Tinton Falls.

The Seashore School in Long Branch has been a longtime supporter of the Food- Bank and joined the challenge this year to continue to help those in need.

"This year, with so many people losing jobs and struggling to make ends meet, it is more important than ever to pitch in," said Sharon Metz, Seashore, director of marketing and public relations. "We want to ensure that less fortunate families have food for the holiday and that no one goes hungry."

Students in Seashore's journalism class wrote an article in the premier issue of the newsletter asking parents and members of the community to help the cause by donating food to their drive. Students also remind their classmates to bring in food every morning on the television broadcast.

"Seashore students are working hard to bring in as much food as possible," Metz said. "They are very aware of the importance of helping others and enjoy working as a team to make a difference."

The hunger challenge is broken into three levels: elementary, intermediate and high school.

Within those categories, there are four divisions based on the number of students in the schools. Division 1 is one to 100 students; Division 2 is for 101-400 students; Division 3 is for 401-1,000 students; and Division 4 is for 1,001 or more students.

Each grade level was given a different category of food to collect, McMahon explained. The elementary students were tasked with collecting lunch-box items; intermediate students were to collect holiday food items and the high school students set out to collect food items to fill emergency boxes.

The 2008 challenge started Oct. 1 and students were able to collect food items up until Nov. 24. The winners will be announced Monday, according to McMahon.

"In the end, you take the number of pounds of food the students collected and divide that number by the amount of students to come up with the final figure," McMahon said. "It is unbelievable the responses we are getting about this.

"[The students] are excited. They are involved," she said. "And the parents are involved too. We found out last year that a lot of the parents wanted to send in money with their food."

With the positive feedback the Food- Bank received last year from parents and community members, McMahon said they introduced another aspect to the challenge this year called the Pounds for Dollars.

In addition to donating the food, someone in the community can make a monetary donation to the FoodBank on behalf of a certain school. For every dollar donated, an extra pound will be added to that school's grand total at the end of the challenge.

The 2008 Holiday Hunger Challenge Champion Award roving trophy will be awarded to the school that collects the most pounds of food per student. A 2008 Spirit Giving Award will also be presented to the school that demonstrated exceptional spirit, commitment, generosity and kindness.

"This is something really great for the students and the community," McMahon said. "The students bring the food [to the FoodBank] and they see the facility.

"It is a 42,000-square-foot facility," she said. "It is huge. Their jaws drop when they see it firsthand."

Statistics show that 40 percent of those who suffer the effects of hunger in Monmouth and Ocean counties are children, according to a press release from the FoodBank.

The FoodBank secures and distributes 3.7 million pounds of donated food to a network of 270 emergency hunger relief agencies in Monmouth and Ocean counties. The organizations include emergency food pantries, soup kitchens, day care centers and shelters, as well as other hunger relief agencies.

The FoodBank, a member of Feeding America, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit whose mission is to provide food for as many needy people as possible.

Although the holiday challenge has proven to be successful, McMahon said that people are in need of food year-round, not just around the holidays.

The FoodBank has found that donations of food are much needed in the summer months. During the summer, children who are usually being fed through the school system are no longer receiving free and reduced-cost meals and the demand for food from the FoodBank increases, according to McMahon. For more information on the FoodBank or to make a donation, visit www.foodbankmoc.org or call 732-918-2600.