Two supermarket cashiers from Warwick have their faces on Cheerio boxes in thanks for leading an effort to raise money for their local food bank.
ShopRite cashier Cheryl Ann Wilson never backs away from an opportunity to raise money for various causes. Most recently, she collected donations for the Food Bank of the Hudson Valley by asking customers to contribute when they check out.
“Sometimes they'll give $20, sometimes they'll give a penny,” she says.
Wilson and her co-worker Erica Morgan led the staff in donations and raised $8,000 this past fall for the food bank.
Wilson says her family once benefitted from food banks, so this is important to her.
“When I was younger…my parents didn't have very much. So, doing stuff like this was always a way of giving back to what they gave us,” she says.
General Mills and ShopRite unveiled a new special double-box Cheerios package that features Wilson, Morgan and other top fundraisers from around the Northeast.
Together they raised just over $1 million for food pantries.
Wilson has lived in the area for 55 years and says she knows all the customers who come through. So, when the food pantry needs help, she calls on her friends to help the underserved community.
“There are people who don't even have a little bit of money for food. And the food pantry in Warwick … you just have to have a place where you live and [tell them] how many people are in your family, and they will help you. It's a great organization.”