The Rolling Meadows Mustangs may have won Friday’s football game against rival Elk Grove High School, but it was the Grenadiers who took home the trophy. The Cereal Bowl trophy, that is.
The traveling trophy is named for former Elk Grove Township Supervisor Paul Pioch.
Since 2016, the two schools have collaborated in a friendly competition to see who could collect the most cereal boxes. Every year, the real winner is the Elk Grove Township food pantry, whose service area includes both schools.
The total number of cereal boxes collected this year was 8,730, with Elk Grove students collecting 4,935 and Rolling Meadows adding another 3,795. The whopping number of cereal boxes exceeds last year’s total of a little more than 7,000 boxes.
“It’s truly remarkable to see what happens when a community rallies together around a simple, yet meaningful cause,” says Eileen Herbster, moderator of the National Honor Society at Rolling Meadows. She and her colleague, Cindy Pena, moderator of the Stampede Service Club, oversaw the student collection at Rolling Meadows.
“What makes the Cereal Bowl at Rolling Meadows so special,” Herbster says, “is that it has always been driven by generosity and the school spirit of the school community.”
Elk Grove students went door-to-door through the local neighborhoods on Sept. 7, but they had been promoting the collection within the school community and its many teams and clubs, long before that. Joe Bush, a social studies teacher at Elk Grove, who teaches the Leadership Through Service Class, helped to start the collection and he continues to moderate it.
Rolling Meadows students prepare to load boxes into the township truck.
“I was really excited that the kids pushed themselves to get over the 4,000 mark,” Bush says. “The drive that we did in the village made a huge difference as we collected about 1,500 boxes from the community.”
Besides the students and their leadership, Bush credited members of the Rotary Club of Elk Grove, who connected students with several different businesses that engaged in the collection as well.
“It was truly a community effort,” Bush says.
The record turnout came just in time, says Isabella Manzo, Elk Grove Township Administrator. Earlier this month, food pantry volunteers were down to their last bin of cereal boxes from last year’s collection. In other words, they had gone through the more than 7,000 boxes in a little less than a year.
It’s not just families who stock up on cereal, Mango says. Seniors living on a fixed income enjoy the selection of cereal boxes at the pantry. In all, the Elk Grove Township food pantry consistently draws 1,100 households per month, she adds, so they need every box.
Elk Grove student carries the load (2024).
“We’re so lucky to offer such a variety,” Manzo said earlier this month. “We’ve distributed all of the boxes and are down to our last bin. We’re so grateful they’ve lasted this long.”
Bush credits Paul Pioch with starting the bowl. Pioch formerly led Elk Grove Township as Supervisor and during his nearly 10 years of service, he is credited with expanding the food pantry and converting it into a client-choice model, allowing families to shop for what they needed. Consequently, the cereal bowl competition is named for Pioch.
“Watching so many boxes come together through the kindness of students, staff, alumni, neighbors and our community,” Herbster adds, “is a powerful reminder of what can be achieved when an entire community steps up for others.”
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