By Mary Stadnyk | Associate Editor

Kaci Mikulski is one young lady who keeps her priorities in order.

In between two morning lacrosse matches, an early afternoon soccer game and a graduation party later in the day, the second grader in Our Lady of Perpetual Help School, Maple Shade, made time in her busy May 17 schedule to come out and support her school’s participation in a special town-wide project.  

Mikulski and her parents joined with representatives from the southern Burlington County Catholic school including principal, Carl Jankowski, and second grade teacher, Sherri Hunkins, at a nearby ACME supermarket where they collected donations of canned goods and non-perishable food items for the Maple Shade Food Pantry. The occasion also offered the school community a chance to celebrate the two “Best Of” honors it received from local newspaper, The Courier Post. OLPH School was named “Best Of South Jersey” in the school district category and Hunkins was named “Best of South Jersey” in the teacher category.

“It means a lot to me to be here,” Mikulski said reflectively. “I’ve never seen how much people need food and I wanted to help them.”

Hunkins, who has been on the OLPH faculty for 11 years, 10 of which as a second grade teacher, explained how the food collection evolved from being a second grade class project to a school-wide service effort to ultimately a Maple Shade community endeavor. In March, her second graders initiated the FEED 500 project which involved students collecting 500 food items during the six weeks Lent as a class.

But as the canned goods poured in and momentum among the class increased, Jankowski said FEED 500 “went viral” and all of the OLPH grades wanted to become involved. FEED 500 grew into “feed 1,500” and the school contributed 1,500 food items which were delivered to the food pantry May 2. Hunkins added FEED 500 was not just about students collecting canned goods. They were encouraged to have a prayerful approach, keeping in mind that it was Lent and that one of the pillars of the season is almsgiving. Some students “earned” their canned goods by doing chores around their homes; some even when as far as soliciting their neighbors for donations.

Though Lent 2014 had passed, Jankowski said the energy for FEED 500 permeated into the Easter season and the campaign grew into a wider outreach in which ACME offered to partner with the second grade class in hosting another food drive which was held in the supermarket’s parking lot May 17 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Jankowski said that it’s outreach projects such as FEED 500 and the willingness of the OLPH School community to help those in need “that makes us Best Of,’” he said as he reflected on school’s two recent Courier Post honors.

Noting that in the past seven years that OLPH has entered the newspaper’s campaign, the school was named “Best of South Jersey as a school district for six consecutive years. The Courier campaign is conducted through mail-in ballots and on-line voting and “we won because we received the most amount of votes. I believe that this happened because we have an overwhelming support and school spirit because of our OLPH school families,” he said.

Remarking on Hunkins’ many years of service to the school, including preparing second graders for their reception of the Sacrament of the Eucharist and helping them to grow in their Christian faith, Jankowski said that, “Mrs. Hunkins is part of the tradition of excellence and faith formation at OLPH.”