Parsippany Mathnasium Students Sacrifice to Feed the Hungry

Danna Seyam is a CPA, Rutgers grad and former PwC auditor who owns Parsippany's Mathnasium on Beverwyck Road. Earlier this month, she challenged her students to a truly tricky math problem: How many Parsippany Mathnasium students would be willing to trade in their math reward cards in exchange for $1 per card being donated to the Community Food Bank?

Adding to the moral dilemma was a gleaming, well stocked, toy-laden rewards cabinet that students pass by each day before they sit down and spend their afternoons working on extracurricular math. Giving away a card would mean foregoing hard-earned personal rewards.

The kids earn punch cards for solving complex math problems outside of school. Some kids are quick to exchange a card for a small prize, while others save many cards to earn larger rewards. However, 50 children willingly gave up over 900 earned cards before Thanksgiving. Several kids handed over every card they had earned and saved.

Appropriately deeming this "Kindness Week," Danna matched the first 500 donations dollar-for-dollar, so the kids and this local business teamed up to provide $1,526 equating to 4,578 meals. She commented,"Students were also told that every $1 they donated meant they were providing 3 meals to people who need it. The kids and instructors were having fun using their mathematical skills to see how many meals they personally were giving! The total amount will be donated to the Community Food Bank of New Jersey."

Students who donated, along with their donated cards include:

Sarvesh Patham 150
Renee Yeruva 86
Anvi Bhatt 84
Lena Chen 69
Manali Desai 63
Dominick Badia 49
Ridham Desai 45
Dhairya Patel 44
Prithu Dhawan 36
Naina Patel 30
Saanvi Indoria 28
Carina Maroldi 27
Aneesha Bhattachargee 24
Luke Kocherry 15
Sanjeev Dudi 15
Rahima Qasemi 13
Jay Vaghela 13
Damon Servidio 11
Brayden Uglione 10
Prisha Shah 9
Ayanna Sharma 8
Dhara Patel 8
Raj Shah 8
Dhruvi Rana 8
Sangeetha Seethalaksmi Sundaram 7
Saanvi Naralasetti 6
Aarush Basupally 5
Arshi Patel 5
Jenny Ke 5
Sriya Boppana 4
Shaheer Siddiqi 3
GG Pantula 3
Raashi Shah 3
Jasmine Patel 3
Tanishi Desai 3
Shri Saranya 2
Ishaan Peddi 2
Amir Miazad 2
Rebecca Korchman 2
Victoria Maroldi 2
Carter Hauge 2
Iman Miazad 2
Derek Uglione 2
Katherine Chen 1
Krish U Patel 1
Suravi Shah 1
Simran Patel 1
Priya Chopra 1
Timmy Pactwa 1
Sahil Thakkar 1
Isabella Hsieh 1
Anirudh Venkatesan 1
Raashi Shah 1