Daniel Marcus, an elementary school student in Cherry Hill, has entered the Uncle Ben’s Brand Ben’s Beginners Cooking Contest, a program to encourage children to make healthier meal choices by getting them interested in cooking at an early age.
What’s unique about Daniel’s entry is that if he wins, instead of having the $30,000 prize go to his school cafeteria, he wants the money to go to Sacred Heart School, an elementary school in Camden that doesn’t have a cafeteria. The contest winners are chosen by public votes, so now through Nov. 3, Daniel asks the community to help him win by voting for his video online.
“I just hope I get in the top five so I can win for Sacred Heart. I’ve never won anything this big and it would be cool to say I won the competition, and not just win, but that I did something good,” Daniel said.
Daniel learned about Ben’s Beginners Cooking Contest through a friend who previously entered and won last year, inspiring him to enter. He felt the contest not only fit his interest in movie making, as he had to make a video, but also his love of his rice bowl recipe and his passion to give back to Sacred Heart School in Camden.
Ben’s Beginners Cooking Contest aims to empower parents to connect with their children one meal at a time and make cooking an enjoyable activity that brings families together. Parents with children who are in kindergarten through eighth grade were asked to submit a three-minute home video showing the family together cooking a rice-based dish.
If selected as one of the five grand prize winners, the Marcus family will receive $15,000 in cash and a $30,000 cafeteria makeover for a school of their choice.
Daniel, a student of Thomas Paine Elementary School, felt that his school didn’t necessarily need a new or upgraded cafeteria. Instead, he decided he wanted to give the $30,000 cafeteria makeover to Sacred Heart School in Camden, as it doesn’t even have a cafeteria to call its own.
“My school, we have a fine cafeteria. We don’t exactly need a new one. Scared Heart doesn’t even have one. No one should grow up in a place like that, and I just wanted to give something back,” Daniel said.
Sacred Heart School has been in Camden since the 1920s, started by the parish as a Catholic school. As Sacred Heart School doesn’t receive financial help from the dioceses, it started a sponsorship program that basically every student at the school benefits from. Students are paired with sponsors who offer scholarships and financial help to families to send their child at a reduced cost to Sacred Heart School, where the goal is to offer a quality education in a safe, caring Christian environment. Currently the school hosts about 200 students, primarily from Camden
According to Daniel’s mom, Tara, he and the Marcus family have been helping the Sacred Heart School for about 10 years with sponsorships and volunteerism. This past year, the school’s pastor, Michael Doyle, sent a letter asking for a large amount of financial help beyond the sponsorships. According to Tara, Daniel was crestfallen and wanted to do something to help.
“The school doesn’t have a cafeteria, no gym, he wanted to do something for them. I’m happy that Daniel picked up our sensibilities about helping others,” Tara said.
Through Ben’s Beginners Cooking Contest, Daniel was able to do so.
Daniel’s school is also 100 percent behind this idea. It even has gone so far as to allow students in his class to be in his video with parental permission, encouraged the school community to vote for his video and allowed his video to be shown in class.
“My principal (Kirk M. Richansrud) sent out a paper to everyone in the school,” Daniel said.
“The principal didn’t even blink. He was 100 percent in. I was so appreciative of that,” Tara said. “We had to come into the class and they graciously stopped what they were doing to video tape. Everyone’s been so terrific.”
Daniel, along with his family, school and friends, ask the community to vote for his video, “Daniel’s Steak, Rice & Messy Broccoli Bowl” at UncleBens.com. Votes are a measure to name the Top 25 finalists in the contest. To watch and vote for the Marcus family’s video, please visit unclebens.com/ben’s-beginners/entry?e=3716.
“You just have to vote and, please spread the word about my video. I think that would be very nice. It is just nice to send it out, not to just people that I know, but to everyone,” Daniel said.
Voting will take place until Nov. 3, and individuals are encouraged to vote once per 24 hours. Go to unclebens.com to learn more.
