Howell High Students Recognized for Food Donations

Heading into the Thanksgiving break, students at were busy food not only for local families, but also for the Food Bank of Monmouth and Ocean Counties. 

This week the Rebels learned that not only did they collect more than 12,000 pounds of food, they were also the biggest contributor to the bank's 100,000 Pound Challenge. According to the food bank's website 91 schools and 47,000 students took part in the challenge. 

One of the advisors to the students at the local high school was Camille Mussari, the school's student assistance counselor. She said the total of 12,704 pounds was a definite point of pride for the school. "I just felt so proud of them that they gave back to someone who was less fortunate than they were," she said. "I'm very grateful to all the kids that participated in it."

Mussari said this is the school's fourth year taking part in the program with this year's total blowing previous years out of the water. Last year, she said the students collected more than 4000 pounds of food and 3000 pounds each of the previous two years. And while this year was an impressive total, Mussari said this only raises the bar for the Rebels. "We've got to beat it next year," she said. 

The efforts by the Rebel students were not lost on the people who are charged with distributing the food. Ellen Koment, the food bank's media coordinator said Howell's donation was the biggest they have received in the history of the challenge. "We've had larger donations than that, but not in that time frame," she said of the two-month window for contributions. "They really went above and beyond and it was exceptional."

All told Koment said with 68,721 pounds of food collected and more than $35 thousand in donations the food bank was able to collect over 104,000 pounds of food. According to Feeding America, the average meal is approximately 1.28 pounds which makes the total donations that much more impressive. 

With the success of this year's program, Koment said there is hope next year will be even better. "These kids did a great job," she said. "Hopefully next year there will be more schools and it will even spread throughout the state."

Even with the impressive donations, Koment said the food bank is always looking for more donations. That includes non-perishable and canned items that can last the bank well past the holiday season. The food bank not only feeds people who come to their headquarters in Neptune, but also provides items to 260 other organizations between the two counties. A list of places to bring donations is included in this article.