Luke and Jett Justin started volunteering at Boca Helping Hands with their parents several years ago, helping pack up meals for families in need.
But the two little boys couldn’t help but notice there was a shortage of breakfast foods, especially their favorite cereal.
“Cereal really represents happiness, it’s not just food so when people receive it they’re receiving breakfast and happiness and it lifts them up,” Luke said.
At just eight years old, the twins created a nonprofit called Cereal4All and organized their first cereal drive at their school, Calusa Elementary.
“We think kids can really relate to it because if they can imagine what it would be like not to have cereal in their own bowls, they will want to donate,” Jett said.
Four years later and heading into 8th grade at Don Estridge Middle School, the boys have now donated more than 90,000 bowls of cereal to Boca Helping Hands.
And Cereal4All is expanding to more schools every year, even reaching a college for the first time with the help of the FAU community service club.
“When you’re helping someone, you can help them reach their full potential and we just like being a part of the amazing work Boca Helping Hands does to help our community,” Jett said.
Boca Helping Hands has been serving families in Palm Beach County for decades.
The community-based nonprofit provides food, medical and financial assistance to meet basic human needs as well as education, job training and guidance to create self-sufficiency.
Bill Harper is the organization's Director of Food and Warehouse Operations and he says they’re proud to have the Justin boys on their team, providing breakfast to thousands of families in our area.
“It’s really tough to find young people who really are that caring about others, so they really do inspire me, and they inspire other adults to get out there and to live a life of service,” Harper said.
Normally, the boys annual cereal drive lasts for about a week in March, but because of the pandemic, they extended it to give more people time to donate.
From March to May this year they collected nearly 3000 pounds of cereal.
“The best part is at the end just seeing all the cereal in the pantry bags and knowing they’re going out to people who really need it,” Luke said.
In 2019, the twins also received a donation of 2000 boxes from General Mills after persistently writing to the company for three years. General Mills still supports Cereal4All and, this year, they sent the boys T-shirts to give to students who donate cereal boxes.
If you'd like to get involved or learn more about their annual drive, visit the Cereal4All website.
