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Health & Fitness

Student Turns Superstorm Sandy into a Community Service Cause

Quiet acts of kindness often go unnoticed, but they also tend to make the largest impact. When Hurricane Sandy swept through the Jersey Shore just over a year ago, one Ranney School student took it upon herself to help in an extraordinary way. Samantha Chiarello ’15 (Holmdel) decided to help the victims of the superstorm by focusing on the volunteers that came from across the United States to help clean up the devastation.


A few weeks before the storm hit, she had created an Upper School club called “Cooking for a Cause,” to prepare meals for Family Promise, a national nonprofit organization that serves low-income and homeless families through local church communities. When Sandy wreaked its havoc on neighboring towns, however, Samantha turned the club’s attention toward storm relief and recovery efforts.


For 26 weeks, she and the student club members—about 10 of them, along with Club Advisor and Fine Arts Chair Ms. Kate Greenberg—provided home-cooked meals to volunteer groups ranging from 10 to 50 or more individuals. The disaster recovery team volunteers spent a week at a time, sometimes more, in the area helping local residents.

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All of the volunteers spent their days working in Union Beach and their nights at the nearby Monmouth Church of Christ in Tinton Falls, often sleeping on cots and showering in a donated shower truck. Samantha arranged for the meals that club members cooked at home to be stored in the refrigerator inside the Fine Arts Building (the little white house) on campus. Every Tuesday, she would pick up the meals and deliver them to the volunteers after their long day of relief work.


“We made sure to make a variety of dishes,” recalls Samantha. “Each meal included one or two vegetables, a starch like rice, potatoes or pasta, two main dishes—usually poultry and a red meat, as well as a salad and some kind of dessert.” Samantha spent an average of 10 hours a week shopping, cooking, cleaning up and delivering the food. Between her and the club members, they fed more than 500 people over a six-month period, all while keeping up their academic coursework and additional extracurricular activities.

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The club also continued to prepare meals throughout the year for Family Promise. “For those meals, we tried to include a lot of ‘kid-friendly’ food for all of the children while also making food that would be appealing to the adults,” says Samantha. “I tried to make sure there were enough choices each week so everyone would be happy.”


Samantha started Cooking for a Cause not only because she loves cooking, but also because she wanted to give back to the community while getting others involved. “I thought cooking would be a perfect way to help!” she says.


Founding a club at age 15 seemed daunting at first, but it turned out to be easier than expected, adds Samantha. She realized how many valuable skills she was learning along the way, including how to plan, shop, budget, be creative and cook efficiently for large groups of people. “My time-management skills were improved by this experience, especially when I found myself in the kitchen for entire days, such as the day I made six meatloaves and more than 50 breaded chicken cutlets,” she says, “not to mention the cleanup it required.”


She also gained a great deal from working with the disaster relief volunteers. “They dropped everything to come to New Jersey to help total strangers. Volunteers of all ages made sacrifices to be here, including adults who gave up vacation time from work and college students who gave up their school breaks… Some families with older children came together as well, teaching them to help those in need,” says Samantha. “They were always so appreciative of us, when really they were the ones who should be praised. Some of them actually made me cards to thank me for the meals. It was so sweet, I still have them now! They really showed me what a true sense of community should be.”


With one year of Cooking for a Cause under her belt, Samantha is intent on doing even more great things this year, including delivering more meals to Family Promise. Just this past September, for example, she cooked for Cardboard Box City, a fundraiser for local homeless families, donating five gallons of chili and five gallons of soup to help feed approximately 150–175 people. Samantha also hopes to inspire other students—of all ages—to get involved with their local communities.


“Everyone should try to help others whenever they’re in need,” she says. “No matter what it is, they can find some way to help. People need assistance sometimes and they should be able to count on their community for that support. It is a wonderful feeling for students like me to see the difference they can make, and it will hopefully encourage them to be helpful and supportive throughout their lifetime.”


If you know of a student or group who is involved in a community service project or working to make a difference, please email communications@ranneyschool.org to be featured in our ongoing community service spotlight.

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