OCEAN CITY — Ocean City High School’s National Honor Society went all in for battling hunger, staging an East Coast Strong winter carnival just before the holiday break to raise money for Beyond the Bell.
Beyond the Bell, a program of the Southern Regional Food Distribution Center, works to “remove the stigma of food insecurity” by setting up food pantries in southern New Jersey schools and working with districts to provide students with cooking skills.
The honor society members filled the school cafeteria Dec. 23 with games of chance and skill — such as spinning a wheel, rolling a ping pong ball into a cup, making a putt or using a Nerf dart to knock down plastic cups — enticing students and teachers to part with a buck to try to win little prizes and food treats for their donations.
RELATED STORY: BEYOND THE BELL
“I have the best students. They are absolutely amazing. They designed all of their own tables, they are completely running this. I’m just here for support. It really makes me proud as an educator,” said Catherine Georges, a biology teacher who advises the NHS.
“They get to have some fun and they’re helping a cause. And we’ve got a lot of support from our principal (Dr. Wendy O’Neal), and the Parent-Teacher Organization, which provided the ability for students to Venmo their donations.”
Georges said there were “a lot of hands” involved with making the carnival happen, leveraging fun for a good cause.
“The goal is that you just give one dollar. It’s not a huge amount, but it adds up very, very quickly,” she said.
Georges explained they wanted a different and more local option for a fundraising drive.
“For years, the National Honor Society was always doing a clothing drive and we would get bags and bags and bags of clothes, and we realized that with fast fashion that people weren’t using a lot of these clothes and they were ending up in landfills. So we wanted to actually use all this energy from these National Honor Society students for something more positive,” George said.
Last year the East Coast Strong donations went to relief, through the American Red Cross, for victims of hurricanes Helene and Milton.
“We started to reach out, saying, what kind of things could we do to actually help our local communities? And that’s where we found the Southern Regional Food Distribution Center actually helping students in schools,” she said.
The concept is instead of giving someone a fish, teaching them to fish.
“I loved this idea of providing education with food to break a cycle and (for students) to be able to realize, ‘hey, I can use this food and actually make use of it.’ Instead of simply giving them ramen over and over and over again, teaching them how to do something more with a roast chicken. The education aspect of this really drew me in,” Georges said.
The NHS students bought into the idea.
“We’re helping food insecure people in Upper Township. We’re raising money so they can get food for the holiday season,” Gabby Cupit said.
Lily Bechtold, the recording secretary for the National Honor Society, added, “I’m an officer, so I’m here to supervise, to make sure we can get as much money out as possible to help them out.”
“We do (the carnival) every year to raise money for different organizations,” Mason Kaplan noted.
“I just like spreading fun, Christmas joy, helping out NHS and it’s for a good cause,” Casey Adamson said. “I’m glad people are coming out today to do this.”
Cecelia Mirsky enjoys taking part to spend time with friends while they are all “giving back to a good cause.”
“It’s really fun,” Peighton Clemens said. “All the games are great. All the kids did a really nice job, and lots of our friends are coming down to play with us too.”
“It’s amazing,” Amy Serra Queeney, school community outreach coordinator for the Southern Regional Food Distribution Center, said while watching students swarm into the NHS carnival.
“We were so honored when Catherine reached out to us and said … we were chosen to be the recipients of (the carnival), because definitely we have plenty of places where the money can go,” she said. That includes money raised going for food and a YouTube channel for children to be able to learn cooking skills and safety guidelines.
Queeney explained money could also go toward contests for children “because we really want them to feel like this is just a celebration of food. We’re trying to remove the stigma of food insecurity. Everybody could use a little extra help with utilities being what they are and stuff like that. So it’s just a great opportunity for them to have some food and have some fun. So we’re very grateful.”
– STORY and PHOTOS by DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
