OCEAN CITY — Beyond the Bell works to create food pantries inside schools to alleviate food insecurity and help educate students about ways to use that food.
Last fall, the Upper Township School District was the first to welcome the Beyond the Bell program in Cape May County. Started in October 2024, it is now in 53 schools in southern New Jersey, including those in Camden, Gloucester, Salem, Cumberland and Cape May counties. The group’s coverage zone includes Atlantic County but so far doesn’t have a school there.
Amy Serra Queeney is the school community outreach coordinator for Southern Regional Food Distribution Center, which runs the program.
“Beyond the Bell works specifically with getting food into the schools, from primary through high school and even college,” she said while visiting Ocean City High School just before the holiday break. The National Honor Society at OCHS held a carnival to raise money for the program.
“We work to create either same-day distribution or pantries within the schools for kids to take home free groceries for themselves and their families,” she explained.
Beyond the Bell is funded by private donations and grants. That allows the group “to be a little bit more creative in the food that we bring into the school,” she said. “We’re not using the New Jersey Department of Agricultural food that comes in. This way, we can really design the food for the kids, stuff that they want to eat, stuff that they can prepare themselves.
“We know there are middle school and elementary school kids taking food home and preparing it for themselves and their siblings because their parents might be at work,” she said.
“Our food coordinator, Yesenia McWhite, did an amazing job choosing the right foods and we’re constantly evolving in what we’re sending,” she said about the nutritious options. “You can get anything from a frozen full chicken to some Chef Boyardee. It’s something that the family can prepare together, something that’s a little more difficult, or just basic heat it up in the microwave.”
Queeney is excited because some of the schools where Beyond the Bell is operating are incorporating the program into their education — in their business and culinary programs and family and consumer science (what used to be known as home economics.)
“It’s really well-rounded and I’ve really been excited with the participation all the way around,” she said of the educational component that explains how to make food dollars last.
“Fifty dollars for a family for a week can be done,” she said, “but you have to be taught how to do it.”
The program has long-term goals to make children and their families comfortable with not only using the food that is available, but also learning how to use it. Having the Beyond the Bell program in the schools is important because community members often look to the schools for support, she said.
When the program started, the idea was to figure out how to reach more children and more families to prevent food insecurity.
“The schools have been a great way to do that, so we’re really excited about the program and the way it’s growing,” she said.
Call (856) 327-3145 or email amy@ruraldevelopmentcorp.org for more information about this initiative or to learn how to get involved.
– STORY and PHOTO by DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
At top, from left, Amy Serra Queeney with Beyond the Bell, festively dressed history teacher Bryan Chojnacki and biology teacher and National Honor Society advisor Catherine Georges.