Jordan LIA donates hundreds of cereal boxes to elementary students
Apr 15, 2021 10:24AM ● By Julie Slama
Horace Mann Educators Corp. and state Rep. Preston Day, right, helped Bell View Principal Chanci Loran deliver their donated cereal to students. (Amber Tuckett/Bell View Elementary)
By Julie Slama | [email protected]
This winter, Bell View Elementary students and families have appreciated the support of their local community, said Principal Chanci Loran.
“We are so grateful for our community partners and all of the collaboration that went into this drive for our students,” Loran said. “Parents appreciated this, and our students loved being able to take home three boxes of cereal for the winter break.”
Through the efforts of 35 Jordan High Latinos in Action members, about 600 boxes of cereal arrived in time for the holiday break.
“Jordan LIA students have participated in some form of grocery handout like this for the last 10 years,” LIA adviser Matt Bell said. “As a service learning group, LIA loves making this happen. They love being a part of something that is bigger than themselves. It’s been fun to see how the students light up when we deliver—especially when it benefits future Beetdiggers.”
Bell said to make it possible, LIA typically pairs up with a community group. This year they partnered up with Alta High tennis coach Lori Sperry, who “pulled her neighborhood together along with her team to help us in a big way,” he said.
In addition, Meraie Kimball and Tyler Sperry also contributed to the drive.
Loran also said that Horace Mann Educators Corporation, and state Rep. Preston Day’s agency, donated $800 and purchased cereal at cost from Harmons. The neighborhood grocer coordinated free delivery of more than 500 additional boxes of cereal to the school.
“We were able to give the kids a ton of cereal and make sure they had at least breakfast to eat (during winter break) because I know a lot of those kids eat breakfast and lunch at the school,” said Day about the pallet of cereal they donated.
Day was able to help distribute the cereal to students in the classrooms.
“They were pumped up. It was fun to just see (the students say), ‘Oh man, I got Trix’ or ‘I got Lucky Charms’ or ‘I got Honeycombs,’” he said, adding that Horace Mann’s guidelines were that the students could receive cereal they may enjoy. “They just wanted to make the kids happy. We dropped off what they’d be excited to eat.”
Day said that if he were to have received one of those cereal varieties: “I would have probably eaten them all before my parents got home from work.”
He also is looking to support educators by funding their projects through DonorsChoose grants.
“This was actually really cool, and Chanci was awesome to let me be a part of it,” Day said.
