Be Kind supports students, families through giving
A Robbinsville nonprofit is helping local students and families in need while bringing the community together through volunteerism and acts of kindness.
Be Kind, founded in 2020, is nearing its $7,500 fundraising goal for its Sponsor a Student program, which helps Robbinsville Public Schools students who qualify for free or reduced-price meals purchase additional food at school.
The organization also prepared for a meal-packing event on Sunday, Nov. 1, as part of its ongoing efforts to support local food pantries and families in need.
For Cindy Rosen, president and co-founder of Be Kind, both initiatives reflect the organization’s mission to respond to community needs while providing opportunities for residents to give back.
“This just works and is such a great volunteer community. Whenever we have something, the community is there to step up,” Rosen said.
Now in its fourth year, the Sponsor a Student program raises money for students participating in the district’s free or reduced-price meal program. Donations are added to students’ meal accounts, allowing them to purchase food items they might not otherwise be able to afford.
“We have been donating to students on the free and reduced lunch program. We will take up a collection where one child is $25 that money will go onto the kids accounts and they can choose if they want an extra piece of pizza or if they want a desert,” Rosen said.
“These kids don’t get to choose everything off the menu so we kind of give them the grace to be able to have something they may not have been able to.”
The program grew out of a need Be Kind identified among local students. The nonprofit is currently seeking additional donations and volunteers to support its efforts.
The meal-packing event is another way the organization hopes to help families facing food insecurity, particularly as the holiday season approaches.
“Depending on manpower, time, and who on the board is around we will try to do a Thanksgiving drive. This year, I don’t know if we are going to do one, but we will have an upcoming meal packing event on Nov. 1 so we will send those meals out to the local community pantries,” Rosen said.
Meal packing was among the first activities Be Kind organized after its founding.
“We started out with meal packing events. We get the raw material say for a minestrone soup, and we have the volunteers come in and package them into FDA complaint bags of food,” Rosen said. “We will source out local pantries who need help. Everything just flows now.”
Be Kind was established by four Robbinsville residents, Umang Naik, Rosen, Bill Coleman and Akshita Naik, who wanted to create an organization focused on giving back to the local community.
Umang Naik, Coleman and Rosen were members of the Rotary Club when the idea for Be Kind began. They wanted to establish an organization that could respond directly to needs in Robbinsville and surrounding communities.
The four co-founders envisioned a nonprofit that could act quickly when a need was identified and connect residents with meaningful volunteer opportunities.
“We were able to provide help fairly quickly. We kind of sourced out some events that we could handle with a small board, and we had the volunteers willing to step up. Yes, it took some time to build our base, but we have a lot of followers on social media and our What’s App group who we communicate through.”
Over the years, Be Kind has built a network of volunteers who respond when opportunities to help are announced. The organization also shares volunteer opportunities with Robbinsville High School, encouraging students to become involved in community service.
The nonprofit identifies needs through requests from individuals and organizations, as well as its own outreach to the community.
Since its founding, Be Kind has raised more than $50,000 to support charitable initiatives and volunteer efforts. More than 1,000 volunteers have participated in its projects and causes, helping provide more than 100,000 meals to people in need.
Those efforts have expanded beyond meal packing to include clothing drives, school assistance programs, donations to other nonprofits and projects intended to bring comfort to people facing difficult circumstances.
Rosen previously volunteered with Project Linus, a nonprofit that provides handmade, washable blankets to children in need. Be Kind has supported the organization’s mission by making blankets.
The organization has also extended its charitable work beyond the local community.
“There are sometimes where we might see a need around the globe we will make a decision to help such as World Central Kitchen if they needed some funding. When the war in Ukraine started, we sent some money there for WCF,” Rosen said.
“We have helped out in in India several years in a row to help children with clothes and shoes. We try to source ideas ourselves and come up with different projects we can work on.”
Closer to home, Be Kind has collected food for the Robbinsville Food Pantry, packed meals with the Catholic Diocese of Trenton and for the Mount Carmel Guild of Trenton, organized diaper collection challenges and donated money to volunteer organizations and charitable efforts.
The nonprofit has also collected new and gently used stuffed animals for Stuffed Animals for Emergencies (SAFE), an organization that provides comfort items to children experiencing traumatic situations, and organized book donations.
As winter approaches, Be Kind is preparing for another season of collecting warm clothing for those in need.
The nonprofit’s winter clothing drive collects new and gently used jackets, sweaters, sweatshirts, mittens, gloves, boots and other winter essentials.
“During the winter months we have a four-month long winter gear drive where we take coats, hats, gloves, and scars and we go down to Sandro’s Coat Rack outside the Trenton Area Soup Kitchen and hang up what we have.”
The donations help provide warm clothing to people who might otherwise go without during the colder months.
While many of Be Kind’s projects focus on meeting basic needs, the organization also looks for opportunities to bring happiness to children and families.
Last year, Be Kind organized a stuffed animal drive that exceeded its fundraising and collection goals. Many of the donated animals went to RISE, a nonprofit based in Hightstown that distributes gifts and other items to children during an annual celebration.
“Last year, we did a stuffed animal drive, and we ended up way surpassing our goal and most went to nonprofit RISE in Hightstown where they have an annual party and kids get bags of items donated,” Rosen said.
“Each child was able to have a stuffed animal and is a great feeling to have the support from the community and see the results when the kids are happy.”
For Rosen, those moments demonstrate why Be Kind’s work is about more than collecting donations or providing supplies. The organization also gives residents an opportunity to connect with their neighbors and experience the satisfaction of making a difference.
She hopes Be Kind will continue inspiring people to find ways to volunteer, whether through its student sponsorship program, meal-packing events, clothing drives or other community projects.
“There should be some amount of volunteerism in your life. We hope to supply opportunities for people to take part in fulling themselves through volunteerism,” Rosen said. “I hope people take away that from what we are doing here.”
