Box Out Mr. Franko Day

On Friday, May 14, Hanover Park principal Edward Franko struggled to enter his office. Over five hundred boxes of cereal were in his way.

Each year Hanover Park’s Key Club, led by teachers Marcia Walsh and Diane Minsavage, sponsors a “Box Out Mr. Franko” challenge as a way to spread hunger awareness and encourage students to donate to the cause. This year’s collection resulted in two van-loads of cereal that were brought to the Interfaith Food Pantry in Morristown.

The drive was part of a county-wide effort called Curbing Hunger, an initiative that began over ten years ago to increase food donations over the summer months. According to their website, Curbinghunger.org, the organization has distributed almost two million pounds of food since its beginnings, and subsists primarily on donations from New Jersey residents, including corporations and schools.

Key Club donates to many charities throughout the year, but Walsh says the annual Box Out Challenge is a way to inspire even more participation from students. “Most of the HP students are already really generous and participate in all the collections,” she said. “But this year we wanted to make our goal the hunger crisis and show that there is a real need.”

By involving Principal Franko, students saw the drive as a fun way to give back to the community. They were encouraged to bring cereal into their homerooms to compete in the school-wide competition. With posters of Franko’s face on cereal boxes plastered around campus, and motivational announcements from him each morning, students had no choice but to get involved. 

Franko was thrilled to be the face of the box out challenges year after year. “It’s a great activity for the kids to learn about caring and taking care of others,” he said. “It reminds them that others are not as fortunate as they are.”

Now in his last year as principal, Franko had complete faith in the giving spirit at Hanover Park. “My kids never let me down,” he said. And they certainly didn’t. They came together to contribute to a dire need—and in the process left their principal with nowhere to sit.