Just in time for Foodshare Awareness month and National Cereal Day, the Pine City Elementary School is doing a boxed cereal drive to “Knock Down Hunger."
Dihanna Fedder said the drive is inspired by a viral Facebook video of students who used donated boxed cereal as dominos. The video depicts hundreds of boxes lining the halls of a Michigan Elementary school with students cheering as they follow the line of boxes.
"The kids loved it, and it was community building. It was just a great thing."
She loved the impact that the drive had on those students, so Fedder thought it could be something that students and community members can do here to do some good and spread a little joy.
Fedder runs the Dragon Food shelf and has a history of serving with the Pine Community Food shelf and homeless shelter. She says that cereal is a food item that is popular across all groups.
"It's one of the things here in our Dragon Food Shelf that I can't keep on the shelves. The kids love it," Fedder said. "It's an easy food to eat. A bowl of cereal fills your tummy."
On top of just trying to do something good, there is a slight challenge to the event. The current world record for "cereal boxes toppled in a domino fashion" is 3,416. It was set in 2017 by the students and staff of H. Frank Carey High School in Franklin, New York.
Fedder says the goal is just to see what they can do in this first year. However, if they can manage to come close, they would go the whole nine yards and register with the Guinness Book of World Records.
"Knock Down Hunger" started on Monday, March 8, and will run until March 23.
All food raised during the drive will be donated to the Dragon Food Shelf, A Place for You, and the Pine City Food Shelf.
The official event is scheduled for March 24, where they will line the halls with all the donations they have collected. Unfortunately, there cannot be any outside spectators due to COVID restrictions, but Fedder said that they will make sure live videos and photos will be available.
