Somerville's Healey School Gets $20K From Box Tops For Education

SOMERVILLE, MA — Students at Arthur D. Healey School in Somerville will be taking a few more field trips than originally scheduled in the coming months thanks to a $20,000 donation from Box Tops for Education.

The school, which is PK-8 and located at 5 Meacham St., is one of 14 low-income schools around the country that are receiving a total of $280,000 this month from Box Tops, which was founded by General Mills in 1996.

A spokesperson for Box Tops for Education said many schools will be using their Box Tops donation to replenish school supplies, which can run low during the second half of the school year. However, Healey has taken a slightly different approach.

Since Somerville is a sanctuary city — which encourages the safety and protection of all immigrants regardless of citizenship status — Healey often has to integrate many newcomers into the school. Many of these newcomers move into the neighborhood as refugees.

Healey's leadership has said that one of the best ways to immerse these newcomers into the school community is through field trips.

Trips to Plimoth Patuxet Museums in Plymouth, Parlee Farms in Tyngsborough and Red Gate Farm in Ashfield are among the field trips that could result from the Box Tops funding, according to Healey's leadership team.

"We are proud that the Healey School is home to students from very diverse cultural, linguistic, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds from our strong community-focused City of Somerville," said Healey Elementary School Principal Dr. Mary Ellen Carideo-Cobbs.

Carideo-Cobbs continued: "Thanks to Box Tops, our school and 13 other schools around the country that serve similar student populations will get to finish out the 2022-2023 school year on a very high note."

Since 1996, the Box Tops for Education program has raised nearly $1 billion for schools, including $5 million raised during the last year.

For years, the Box Tops program meant clipping box tops of participating General Mills products and redeeming them for contributions to local schools.

That changed in 2019, with the introduction of an app, which allows people to scan their receipts to earn money for their child's school and for other schools in need.