Bloomfield Supermarket Workers Earn Their Way Onto Cheerios Boxes

BLOOMFIELD, NJ — Two employees at a ShopRite in Bloomfield recently earned their way onto the front of a Cheerios cereal box as part of an annual contest.

Graig Fordyce and Toni Mestopulos, who work at the Brookdale ShopRite on Broad Street, found themselves staring at boxes of cereal with their own faces on them during a ceremony last week. Both helped their local store to raise more than $4,000 for local food banks in the 2023 ShopRite Partners In Caring Cheerios Contest.

Held in partnership with General Mills, the annual tradition recognizes ShopRite associates for “fighting hunger in the communities they serve.” According to a news release:

“ShopRite associates across hundreds of stores compete each fall in a friendly competition sponsored by ShopRite and General Mills, the annual ShopRite Partners In Caring Cheerios Contest. With this year’s contest theme, ‘Ending Hunger Together,’ serving as backdrop, ShopRite associates once again gave their all as they came together to collect donations at check-out, helping raise over $1 million for regional food banks in several states. The 52 top fundraising ShopRite stores select associates to be featured on special-edition Cheerios boxes, sold exclusively at ShopRite and unveiled during in-store celebrations from March to May. Each winning store will also receive prize money ($3,000 for the top five stores, and $500 for the remaining winning stores) to be donated to local food pantries chosen by the respective store teams.”

ShopRite Partners In Caring is a year-round, community-based, hunger-fighting initiative that works with more than 50 food industry manufacturers to provide $3 million annually to qualified charitable agencies in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland and Pennsylvania – all the states where ShopRite stores operate. Since its inception in 1999, ShopRite Partners In Caring has donated $62 million to more than 2,200 charities.

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