The Cereal4all nonprofit was founded on a special idea: In the fight against food insecurity, cereal is about breakfast, but it’s also about happiness–two things the world can use more of. The students of Latimer School in San Jose, CA put that idea into action and organized an epic cereal drive to generate thousands of bowls of cereal and happiness for families in need in the Silicon Valley area.
“I was eating breakfast and a thought popped into my head about all the people in our community who couldn’t afford breakfast for their homes. I felt sad for them,” said 6th grader Adnan Kalangi. “I also learned that the number of people in need of food bank support in Northern California has doubled since the pandemic.”
Adnan discovered his friends Anish Kothari and Aprameya Hosagrahara felt the same way he did, so the three of them assembled to form the AAA Hunger Fighting Team and joined forces with Cereal4all!
AAA decided to organize a cereal drive at Latimer School to benefit the food bank at the remarkable Second Harvest of Silicon Valley, which provides hunger relief to over 500,000 people per month.
“I started thinking about how lucky I am to have water, food, and shelter,” said Anish. “Not everyone has access to those basic needs, so organizing a cereal drive felt like a good way for our school to help and bring attention to the problem.”
But as every student knows, if you want to launch a special project at school, you need the support of special principals, teachers, counselors, and administrators. The AAA Team feels super fortunate to have received so much support from Principal Hillary Gill, Assistant Erin Hammer, and their awesome teacher Cindy Hilliard.
The 6th graders are also extremely grateful for being at a school with so many generous students.
“I was eager to make the cereal drive a success because I wanted to give breakfast to homeless people in our city,” said Aprameya. “When I saw so many students donating boxes of cereal, it raised my hope that our school would be able to help a lot of people.”
AAA’s cereal drive was such an inspiring success that they’ve even been invited to speak about the project at the next school board meeting. They also look forward to volunteering in the food bank at Second Harvest.
Cereal4all is proud to team up with students like Adnan, Anish, and Aprameya, who are passionate about strengthening their communities and giving breakfast and happiness to those who need it most.
