Video: PB&J For MLK At General Wayne

"Less jelly!" a volunteer shouted over the din in a boisterous cafeteria Thursday night.

The fourth- and fifth-grade students gathered around the cafeteria tables raised their purple-stained plastic gloves to show they were listening. "Less jelly! Less jelly!" they chanted back.

Those industrious sandwich builders, along with more than 100 children, parents, volunteers and teachers, packed into the school's cafeteria to decorate and pack paper lunch bags for the school's 10th annual "PB&J For MLK" event, which provides lunches for those in need in the Malvern community.

"This is our big event of the year," General Wayne principal Bonnie Citron said as she simultaneously waved to a General Wayne parent and dodged a dolly full of decorated lunch bags.

"It's a very loved event—and local senior centers, daycares, they look forward to this. We get great thank-you cards back and read them to the kids. They all respond in some way," Citron said.

Everyone from student council to parents, children, teachers, staff and the PTO help with the event, by donating items, money and time. The goal this year was to create 610 lunch bags for local senior care facilities, daycare centers for children and homeless shelters in the Malvern area.

"That's what it's all about: parents or children, giving back time, donating time and doing something good for those in need," Citron said. "That's the message we try to impart to help them learn to give back."

Check out the photo gallery above for a look at the assembly line that goes into making 610 bagged lunches, and a video of the event, in which librarian Marilyn Rothberg, one of the organizers and founders of PB&J For MLK, explains the process.

Download the movie