Gobbling Up Goodness
Donations, Volunteers and Love Help Washington Township Future Acts Clubs Bring Back Gobble Up Hunger Food Drive
Chestnut Ridge Middle School sixth-graders Angelina Roach (left) and Joella McCarron put together a meal box at the Gobble Up Hunger drive on Wednesday.
WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP – The Washington Township middle school Future Acts clubs brought their annual Gobble Up Hunger holiday food drive back in force this year, with groups of students from Bunker Hill, Chestnut Ridge and Orchard Valley Middle School gathering on Wednesday, November 24, 2021, to pack food boxes for those less fortunate in the community.
With Covid-19 causing the 2020 drive to change its look – Washington Township Rotary helped sponsor pre-cooked holiday meals that were picked up in a drive-thru manner – the biggest goal in 2021 was to get the student volunteers involved once again. Insert Tony Grelli, owner of Velocity Ventures and a 2012 Washington Township High School graduate. Grelli’s company sponsored 100 meals, then asked his employees if they wanted to assist, offering to match however many additional meals they committed. The final tabulation was more than 200 meals.
“It was a god-send,” Bunker Hill Future Acts adviser Heather Finn said of Grelli’s generosity.
Grelli worked with a church to provide meals in 2020, but being able to work with the school district he attended – Grelli graduated from Orchard Valley in 2008, as well – added to the act of kindness.
“I was totally on board,” said Grelli, who learned about Gobble Up Hunger from his mother, who is friends with Finn. “I went to this school. Being back here helping out, it made this special.”
With donations and sponsorships from several local organizations and companies, the students were put to work on Wednesday, descending upon Orchard Valley’s cafeteria to pack boxes of food and ready them for delivery this evening.
Sponsors and donations included:
- Washington Township Rotary and Randy Carbone, which donated turkey breasts and volunteered to make deliveries.
- Rocco Gallelli of Innovative Catering Concepts at Estate of Monroe, who is cooking all of the turkeys donated by Rotary, Velocity Ventures, and other community members
- Velocity Ventures and Grelli, who covered the bill at Bottino’s ShopRite for sides and desserts.
- The Bottino family, who provided a gift certificate that helped defer the cost of the sides.
- Duffield’s Farm Market, which donated produce.
- The Washington Township Education Association, which used grant funds to purchase the rest of the produce.
“It has been a work in progress with many moving pieces that have come together perfectly,” Finn said. “We are so excited to have our students involved again this year, as we have in the past, and help our community have a wonderful Thanksgiving!”
Click here for more photos from the event.
CRMS seventh-grader Gianna Caveng (left) and sixth-graders Adrianna Horn (center) and Kahni Jones add a turkey breast to their box.
- WTPS -