Jack Hanson
Student Life Editor
Chartwells teams up with Ellen Degeneres and college students to accomplish a million acts of good.
Chartwells Higher Education partnered with MATTER, a Minnesota-based global nonprofit with a mission to move people forward by giving them a chance at a healthier life and General Mills to give back to the community and promote Degeneres’s one million acts of good initiative.
Students and Keene community members had the opportunity to pack MATTERboxes for their community on Wednesday, March 27 in the student center. The MATTERboxes contained two boxes of Cheerios, peanut butter alternatives, Nature-Valley granola bars and other sources of protein and snacks. Anyone packing the boxes also had the opportunity to write a YouMATTER handwritten note that could say anything from advice, to words of encouragement or something positive.
“It reminded me a lot of the community service I did during orientation…I wanted to give back in that same way again,” said Katelynn Kaimi a sophomore at Keene State. “It was easy and fun. That’s the best kind of community service to do… Knowing that it’s going to go to like the Hungry owl or the community kitchen is a great thing and it gives back to the community and like its going to go to people who like need the food and what it is.”
Degeneres partnered with General Mills and Cheerios back in September 2017, announcing a million acts of good on one of her episodes, asking viewers to send videos, pictures, etc. The one millions acts of good initiative comes from her personal belief to be kind and spread happiness. To continue the initiative, in 2018 Cheerios and MATTER provided boxes and supplies to 50 colleges compared to 100 colleges this year. Keene State College was one of the 100 colleges in the United States to carry out the event. Each college received enough supplies to pack 200 boxes with 20,000 boxes being packed and given out in total over the country.
Caitlin Howell the Marketing Manager for Keene State Dining said that giving back is important and it’s always nice to spread kindness,
“I think it’s really important just to take the moment to say thanks you know throughout the days life has its ups and downs and there’s those you know moments when you’re just feeling down and to be able to do something to spread a little light or a happy little message to someone is a great opportunity,” she said. “You know we all get stuck in our bubbles and to be able to share with our community here, we’re such a big number here in Keene New Hampshire you now having over 4,000 students here from all over the country to be able to take that moment and give back, it’s really important to us.”
Throughout the day students and others came and packed boxes with the process only taking around three minutes. Of the 200 boxes packaged, half of them went to the Keene Community Kitchen and the other half to the Hungry Owl food pantry on campus.
The Hungry Owl is an on campus free food resource open to all students. Jenna Verge, founder and Coordinator for the Hungry Owl is grateful that this opportunity came to Keene state and the exposure it gave to the pantry.
“They reached out to us and it’s very important because to get like Ellen and all that stuff to come and get known through that and recognized was super cool for anyone really but it was a bonus for us…I know a lot of friends that have no idea about the Hungry Owl and they struggle with food insecurity and stuff and to know that even just walking around they can see those boxes and know that they can take them is pretty cool,” Verge said.
According to Kirstyn Vitovich, the Assistant Resident Dining Director for Keene State Dining, “later on if they see that we did so well and everything went through we could actually be asked to do it one more time this year.”
If anyone would like more information on one million acts of good you can find it at https://www.ellentube.com/cheerios.html
If anyone would like more information on the Hungry Owl you can contact Jenna Verge at Jenna.Verge@ksc.keene.edu
Jack Hanson
can be contacted at
jhanson@kscequinox.com
