Boxes piled high with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches covered the floors of offices and classrooms. Refrigerator shelves housed bologna and cheeses crammed in between slices of white and wheat breads. Extra loaves of bread and jars of peanut butter and jelly sat on desks, tables and chairs.
It was barely 9 a.m., but Princeton Academy was already filled with hundreds of sandwiches that the faculty and staff had made and brought into school that Friday. Each adult had made 10 peanut butter and jelly or 10 bologna sandwiches to make a total of 500 bagged lunches for Loaves and Fishes, a Trenton-based nonprofit soup kitchen.
Princeton Academy Reading Specialist Sharie Verdu has been volunteering at Loaves and Fishes for about 20 years. Wanting to bring about a school-wide community service project, she thought helping Loaves and Fishes would be a good idea.
“Part of our mission as a Sacred Heart school is to serve the community and it’s important to get involved in issues that speak to the need for social action,” said Verdu. “I also think it’s important for those of us who are privileged to have interface with those who are not so lucky.”
While the adults supplied the sandwiches, the students brought in apples and juice boxes to complete the lunches. To give the meals a little extra TLC, the students decorated the brown paper bags prior to the final assemblage.
Using teamwork and collaboration, faculty and staff stayed after school and worked together to bag the lunches and organize them for the delivery. Several volunteers brought all the lunches to Loaves and Fishes the following Saturday morning.
One of those volunteers was Verdu.
“I feel like this is the one tiny time slot in my life where I’m really adhering to the values of my faith,” explained Verdu. “You can see people appreciate just a smile and being respected as a person.
