On Monday, February 17th Marlboro Township Public School District (MTPS) hosted the first ever “Our Kitchens Are Seasoned With Love!” As part of the district wide ‘Kindness Campaign,’ ‘Our Kitchens Are Seasoned With Love!’ is designed to promote volunteerism for all students within the K-8 Marlboro Public School District and to, in turn, support the efforts of Lunch Break in Red Bank. Lunch Break supports individuals and families that do not have the means to do it for themselves. The goal is to teach the importance of volunteering through actual doing. The MTPS mental health initiative will work to cultivate an environment that promotes physical and mental well-being within the greater Marlboro School District Community. “Studies have shown that putting the well-being of others before our own without expecting anything in return, or what is called being altruistic, stimulates the reward centers of the brain. Those feel-good chemicals flood our system, producing a sort of “helper’s high.”  How to improve your mental health in 2020

Over 280 community members shared the morning preparing food, decorating placemats and coffee sleeves with positive messages, making cards, sorting new socks, making colorful tissue paper flowers for table centerpieces, and of course cleaning up at the end of the event. All the prepared food and supplies were donated by Chartwells K12 from their generous partners: Performance Food Group, Gargiulo Produce, and NewChef Uniform. Together 520 sandwiches, 4 trays of baked ziti, and 4 trays of london broil were made and prepared. Condiments, chips, granola bars, water, paper plates, forks, knives, napkins, coffee cups and placements were sorted and organized. In addition, MTPS collected over 2,000 pairs of socks from the amazing families that make up our school district. 

The morning opened with a welcome first from Dr. Eric Hibbs, Superintendent followed by Mrs. Karyn Tessler, School Social Worker (Defino Elementary School). Mrs. Tessler along with Vincent Palmiero, Chartwells Director of Dining Services and Tricia Tyndorf, Community School Coordinator planned this event within 4 weeks. 

On Tuesday, February 18th MTPS delivered everything to Lunch Break. Lunch Break freely provides food, clothing, fellowship, and life skills to Monmouth County and beyond for the homeless and families in need. They strive to break the cycle of poverty for those they serve and guide the community members in need to self-sufficiency.

The morning was documented by some of the amazing students from Mr. Jay Seibert’s Digital Media Club (Marlboro Middle School) and Mr. Andrew Bucci’s Audio/Visual Club (Marlboro Memorial Middle School). These students prepared interview questions, took pictures, and created the video that you are about to see.

We are beyond proud of our Marlboro Public School District community and what we were able to accomplish in such a short amount of time. We are looking forward to our future endeavors.