By Matthew Sockol
Staff Writer
FREEHOLD TOWNSHIP – Pupils at the Applegate School in Freehold Township have provided aid to the less fortunate by making a significant donation to a local food pantry.
In January, pupils at the school donated canned goods and non-perishable items to the food pantry of Freehold Area Open Door. According to Principal Brad Millaway, the pupils donated 1,899 non-perishable items.
Freehold Area Open Door, commonly referred to as Open Door, is headquartered in Freehold Borough and serves residents of Freehold Borough and Freehold Township.
The donations the pupils made to Open Door were for the school’s “Souper Bowl” program, which began in 2003. As part of the program, pupils in the two classes who collected the most donations will visit the food pantry this month to stock shelves and learn about the organization.
Karen Finn and Jen Howard’s fifth grade class collected 198 items, the second most donations, according to Millaway.
In a joint statement, Finn and Howard said, “Open Door provides a food pantry program that has been supporting the greater Freehold area community for over 30 years. This helps students to understand the needs in our local community.
“Applegate families were asked to help stock the food pantry by sending in canned goods (soups, vegetables, fruits) and non-perishable items (cereals, baking products, condiments, pasta). Items were collected for the entire month. Our class kept an updated total in the classroom,” they wrote.
Jaclyn Todaro’s third grade class collected 308 items, the most donations, according to Millaway.
“The students in my class worked together to make a class donation of 308 canned goods,” Todaro said. “They set a higher goal for themselves each week, determining how many cans each of them would need to bring in to reach that goal. The students expressed that they felt it was important to help those less fortunate in their own town and also to lend a hand to the hardworking volunteers at the Open Door Food Pantry.”
