The Elk Grove Grenadiers football team edged its conference rival, the Rolling Meadows Mustangs, earlier this month, 20-19, after a late interception sealed the deal. Turns out the Grenadiers not only won the game, they also took home a trophy. The Cereal Bowl trophy, that is.
Students move cereal boxes to a truck for transport to the Elk Grove Township Food Pantry.
The traveling Cereal Bowl trophy capped a monthlong campaign, now in its 10th year, of students from these respective high schools canvasing their neighborhoods and local businesses to collect cereal boxes. Their goal was to help feed families served by Elk Grove Township, whose service area includes both schools.
This year, the Grenadiers collected 3,237 boxes while Rolling Meadows collected 3,094 boxes. Working with the Grenadiers were members of the Elk Grove Rotary Club, who helped students broaden their reach.
“It was another great effort from both schools to collect more than 6,000 boxes this year,” says Joe Bush, a social studies teacher at Elk Grove and moderator of its Leadership through Service Club. “All the students love getting involved and it’s important for them to see how the community participates and donates.”
Since 2016, the two schools have collaborated in this friendly competition to see who could collect the most cereal boxes.
More than 6,000 boxes of cereal were collected.
“Cereal is one of those things that families pick up first at the food pantry,” Bush adds. “Plus, from a collection standpoint, they’re easy to collect and easy to count.”
Officials with the Elk Grove Township Food Pantry say that it’s not just families that look for cereal boxes. Fixed-income seniors also enjoy the selection of cereals on hand, especially the healthier ones.
“The cereal collected will help feed our Food Pantry families for the next year,” Elk Grove Township officials say. “That is an incredible impact and one these students should be very proud of.”
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. The traveling trophy is named for him.
Elk Grove Principal Paul Kelly, left, accepts the trophy from Elk Grove Township Supervisor John Scaletta.
A pair of teachers at Rolling Meadows High School work with students in the Cereal Bowl competition, and both say the students’ enthusiasm for the collection drive is contagious.
“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.”
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