Serviam in Action The Cereal Effect

In the spirit of Serviam - “I will serve” - Ursuline families, faculty, and staff donated boxes of cereal for The Cereal Effect, our new school-wide service project to help combat childhood hunger.

The cereal boxes that we collected were disseminated to those in need through HOPE Community Services. Our friends at HOPE Community Services shared that they see a significant spike in requests for cereal every September, and that since the pandemic, the number has been even higher.

On October 20, 2021, all middle school students were invited to the cafeteria for a cereal breakfast. Students had been asked to forego breakfast at home that morning. The idea was for the students to get a sense of what it is like to arrive at school on an empty stomach. President Melnyk and Principal Beirne gave short remarks and then students had breakfast together - cereal, milk, and orange juice.

After breakfast, students and the Advancement Team, led by Director of Philanthropy Cathy Fay McCarthy ’84 P’14, lined up the cereal boxes through the halls of the school for the domino kick-off. When the 1,094 cereal boxes were set in motion, they created a cereal box domino effect!

The John Cardinal O’Connor School in Irvington joined our effort and accounted for 127 boxes which put us over the 1,000 box mark.

We are proud of the student leaders who took command of this very important project and ran with it - Olivia Goncalves ‘22, Mary Cinguina ‘23, Lena Gilardi ‘24, and Caralyn LoConte ‘25. We were glad to have News 12 reporter Nikita Ramos and camerawoman Erica spend the morning with us, reporting on this outstanding service initiative.