Students at Alpha School Challenge Hunger
For the past 10 years, Alpha School Career Education students, West County Line Road, Jackson, N.J., have won the Division 1 Awards in the statewide Students Change Hunger Challenge food drive competition. This year each student collected 31 pounds of food from September 17, 2018, through December 10, 2019!
For their outstanding accomplishment, iPlay America, Freehold, recently honored the Alpha School with three awards during an award ceremony: the 1,500 Pound Club Award, the Division 1 Award, and the Pounds per Student Award.
Eileen Trainor, a secondary teacher at the Alpha School, said, “We always make an effort to teach our students to be aware of others in need and to develop a spirit of caring for others. We thank everyone for helping our students make a difference and helping our families and neighbors in need in Monmouth and Ocean Counties.”
Alpha School is one of three RKS Associates state-approved special education schools that include the Harbor School, Eatontown, and the Gateway School, Carteret. All three schools provide education, therapeutic, and behavioral support for children who have challenges, such as multiple disabilities, cognitively impairments, autistic spectrum disorder, learning disabilities, traumatic brain injuries, behavioral disorders, or other health impairments.
Alpha students begin the yearly campaign Students Change Hunger by making flyers that are sent home to families, staff, neighbors, and relatives, explaining their involvement in Students Change Hunger and outlining what the local foodbank Fulfill needs.
Students encourage everyone to make weekly donations, which can be dropped out at their homes. They also collect items like peanut butter and jelly, soups, and tuna fish. School fundraising includes selling pizza, cookies, and ice cream; holding staff dress-down days during which the staff can either wear jeans for $1.00 or bring in a food item; and raffling items made by students in Career Education classes and donating those funds to Fulfill.
For more information or information about school enrollment, contact Dana Giblin at 732-544-9394.
RKS Associates Schools: Gateway School: 60 High Street Carteret, NJ 07008 (732.541.4400) https://thegatewayschool.com/; Alpha School: 2210 West County Line Road, Suite #1, Jackson, NJ 08527 (732.370.1150) https://alphaschool.com/ ; Harbor School: 240 Broad Street, Eatontown, NJ 07724 (732.544.9394) https://harborschool.com/
About the Students Change Hunger: Students Change Hunger is a statewide school food drive competition designed to help neighbors in need during the holiday season. Schools, categorized by the size of their student population, compete to collect as much food as possible. The schools that bring in the most food in their division are given special awards at the end of the competition.
About Fulfill (Taken from website): Hunger is still very real in Monmouth and Ocean counties. Every day, one in 10 of our neighbors does not have enough to eat. This includes over 21,000 children in Monmouth and 25,000 children in Ocean. Fulfill provides over 13 million meals every year to 130,000 of our neighbors right here in our communities. Fulfill provides over 142,000 meals to our school children in backpacks, kids’ café, and summer meals programs. The Fulfill mobile pantries serve over 17,757 people in our communities, including seniors and veterans.