Grossano Awarded Community Service Grant

Stefanie Grossano, a Hasbrouck Heights resident and student at Bergen County Academies in Hackensack, is one of the school’s four Community Service Team members who has been awarded the SkillsUSA/Lowe’s Community Service Grant for 2011.

This is the second time the BCA chapter has received this award. According to a statement from the school, the goal of the team’s winning project, entitled “Solving the Paradox: Feeding the Hungry in an Increasingly Overweight World,” is to highlight the correlations between hunger and obesity, thus allowing the problems to be addressed through one concerted effort.

Along with the other members of the team—Kayla Scordo from Saddle Brook, Nicole Dell’Armo from Park Ridge, and Anna Gionet from Teaneck—Stefanie will work on the project throughout the course of the year, participating in and sponsoring events on a community, state, and national level. Stefanie is spearheading this initiative and put together the grant application.

On the state level, they are hosting a food drive through their school, with all food donations to be distributed through Center for Food Action programs throughout New Jersey. With part of their grant money, the students will purchase food for “The Weekend Snack Pack Program” which distributes one-gallon ziplock bags of nutritious snacks for children who normally receive free and reduced lunches on school days, but may go hungry on weekends.

On the community level, the movie “Super Size Me” will be shown at Bergen County Academies as a fun way to raise awareness about obesity in America.

On a national level, the team is hosting a “Great American Bake Sale” through the organization “Share Our Strength,” which will donate all proceeds toward ending childhood hunger, and is looking to participate in First Lady Michelle Obama’s health initiative “Let’s Move.”