Herber Students Craft Sandwiches for Hungry

Imagine making eight-hundred peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in under two hours.

The challenge did not deter students at Howard T. Herber Middle School in Malverne. Members of the school's Honor Society and Community Service Club volunteered their time on March 21 to craft sandwiches for homeless and hungry Long Islanders who come to the INN in Hempstead.

"I knew I was helping someone,' said eighth grader Erykah Bell, who estimated that she had a hand in making roughly 60 sandwiches and helped to wrap hundreds.

Working in assembly lines, the young volunteers efficiently slathered on PB & J , courtesy of the schools fifth, sixth and eighth graders, onto slices of bread donated by the faculty. Then, they wrapped and packed them so they were ready to be delivered to the soup kitchen.

Fifth grader Devon Eskarge was a master wrapper, according to Matt Rosen, a social worker and adviser to the service club.

"He's been helping me this whole week," Rosen said. "He's my community service club manager."

Rosen, who has overseen the club for 15 years and worked in the Malverne school district for 22, said this is the second year the school has held the sandwich drive.Last year, they also made tuna and egg salad sandwiches too, but decided to stick with just PB & J now since it keeps better.

Before they started preparing sandwiches though, the school collected cans of food for the soup kitchen for close to a decade. They continue to do this too and this year the seventh and eighth grade classes brought in a combined 400 cans.

"We did this earlier in the year, but saw their was a need,"  said Rosen, explaining what prompted the school to organize this again only months later. "The beautiful thing about the INN is that the food stays local."

Eighth grader Michael Abiola participated both times this year.

"It makes me feel good," he said.

Abiola tries to put himself in the shoes of those local families who are homeless.

"I think about all the possibilities, everything that can happen out there when you don't have a home," he said.

He also gave credit to Rosen for motivating him to volunteer, saying the adviser is "the best man you'll meet in your life."

Rosen said so many kids came out to help that they had to turn some of them away.

"They understand there's a need for it," he said. "It' s sad that there's people in this situation, but uplifting that so many wanted to help."