Colts Neck and Marlboro Come Up Big for Food Drive

The Colts Neck Cougars are heavyweight champs!

Students from the school collected the second highest amount of food during a food drive that spanned Monmouth and Ocean Counties. In addition, the Marlboro Memorial Middle School won a Spirit of Giving award and were first in their division, collecting 1,378 pounds.

Students from the region responded to an unprecedented need for emergency food by collecting a record-setting 71,148 pounds of food and over $18,000 in the FoodBank’s 7th annual Holiday Hunger Challenge.

The event challenged schools from pre-K through college to participate in a friendly competition to collect food and funds to help keep The FoodBank’s shelves stocked throughout the holiday season.

The Alpha School, Jackson will be honored for collecting the most food (80.7 pounds) per student, and Colts Neck High School receives the Heavyweight Champion award for collecting 6,364 pounds. Brielle Elementary School will be named Early Bird Champion, and winners of the Philip N. Connelly Award are: Barnegat High School, Eisenhower Middle School, Freehold, and Emma Havens Young Elementary School, Brick. Monmouth University will receive the Student Leadership Award and over a dozen schools in both counties will be honored with the Spirit of Giving award.

The FoodBank honored the students on Wednesday. Since 2007, the School Holiday Hunger Challenge has collected more than 415,000 pounds of food for hungry people in the area.

A complete list of winners can be found at www.foodbankmoc.org.

The FoodBank distributes more than 8 million pounds of food annually through a network of more than 260 feeding programs. One in 10 people living in Monmouth and Ocean Counties receives food from The FoodBank. The Holiday Hunger Challenge was established to help educate young people about hunger in their communities while helping to stock the shelves of food pantries during the holiday season. For more information visit www.foodbankmoc.org.