Signal Hill packs lunches on Valentine’s Day
By: Matthew Shinkle
Tags: Schools, Community, Education, New Jersey, Hunger

Signal Hill packs lunches on Valentine’s Day

Last week, all nearly 500 students at Signal Hill Elementary packed lunches for those in need in Camden

Every student at Signal Hill Elementary School participated in the school’s Annual Lunches from the Heart community service project on Valentine’s Day, pitching in to pack lunches for those in need.

The school helped pack more than 500 lunches to be distributed by Cathedral Kitchen and the Neighborhood Center in Camden.

For approximately two hours during the morning on Feb. 14, the nearly 500 students took turns packing lunches assembly line style to make meat and cheese sandwiches, along with pudding or fruit cups, juice boxes and cookies. Students also decorated paper bags for those receiving the lunches.

Ellen Lowenberger, Lisa Brennan, Shari Shapiro, Peacie Moore and Jen Kover show off some of the food collected. The parents helped volunteer their time by assisting the students in packing sandwiches and lunches.

Guidance counselor Paula Long and enrichment teacher Linda Fulleylove have helped lead the project over the past several years. The pair says they can’t thank parents enough for their support.

“It’s huge, I know we’re always asking the parents in the community for different things for different causes,” Fulleylove said. “I feel like we’re always doing some sort of service activity, but the parents never slow down their efforts to help, it’s constant; their generosity just keeps coming.”

Donations were separated by grade levels, with preschool and kindergarten bringing in pudding and fruit cups, first graders bringing in juice boxes, and second graders donating cookies throughout the week. Perishables, such as meat, cheese and bread, were brought in Thursday morning by third, fourth and fifth graders.

Different classrooms and grade levels would take part of their day to pack the lunches alongside parent volunteers and teachers. For the younger children, fifth- and fourth-grade students helped them go through the line safely and pack lunches as mentors to the younger ones, since a majority of older students have taken part in the service project several times.

“We call it cross grade-level, the upper grades helping the lower grades,” Long said. “They all participate.”

Principal Sharon Stallings says the project is an important part of Signal Hill Elementary and is proud the school has held it for more than a decade.

Paula Long, Principal Sharon Stallings and Linda Fulleylove show off some of the packed and decorated lunches that students at Signal Hill packed on Valentine’s Day.

“The academics are key in education for our children, but it’s also important that our children understand how fortunate they are,” Stallings said. “I believe that we do more than is probably expected in a variety of ways, but it’s the big things that we do, like ‘Lunches from the Heart’ to collecting teddy bears for children in Child Protective Services, that make us who we are.”

“This is all very critical to what Signal Hill is all about,” Stallings added.

Signal Hill, alongside other Voorhees Township Public Schools, is active in participating in numerous service projects throughout the year to better the lives of those in the community and around the globe.