It didn’t hurt to ask: A teen’s letter brings 19,000 pounds of food to local pantries
At the conclusion of a fellowship exploring peace, Ender Lin, 13, asked for 'some cereal.' What arrived is 'pretty amazing'
Words from a child yielded 19,000 pounds of change. After Ender Lin, 13, wrote a letter to Kellogg’s on Nov. 23 seeking a donation of “some cereal” for the JFCS Squirrel Hill Food Pantry, Ender, 13, was informed that a truckload would be delivered.
On Jan. 7, Ender, his mother Claire Topal and representatives of the Food Pantry and Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank stood inside a delivery area in Duquesne while a forklift carried 43 pallets containing 1,869 cases of Kellogg’s products. Given the quantity of food, more than 30 minutes were required to transfer items from the truck’s trailer to the warehouse.
When Ender, a Community Day School student who participated in a Visions of Peace Fellowship through the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh, sent his letter to Kellogg’s executives six weeks ago, he had little idea whether he’d even receive a response. Ender undertook a similar project for his bar mitzvah, asking spice companies to donate items to the Food Pantry.
“Just like cereal, spices can really help people. They make food more flavorful, and can, like, remind people of their home,” he said.
The eighth grader’s bar mitzvah request resulted in donations of containers of salt, cumin and garlic. When Ender’s JCC fellowship neared completion in November, and participants were tasked with a capstone project, he decided to build on his earlier approach.
“You might be asking why cereal,” Ender wrote to Kellogg’s executives. “Cereal is important because it helps people start their day. It is part of people’s breakfast routines, and it’s good to be able to keep your routine, especially when you are struggling with finances and feeding your family.”
Meeting needs
Speaking with the Chronicle, Ender referenced Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, an 83-year-old theory introduced by psychologist Abraham Maslow, positing individuals adopt a bottom-up approach to meeting human needs.
As for how that theory relates to a teen fellowship where participants read and discuss Jewish conceptions of peace, Ender said, “Before people can negotiate or make their lives better, they want to have food in their stomach.”
It’s not just Maslow’s theory, or the communal need for food, that he learned from his mother — a JFCS board member — Ender said. It’s the idea of “helping people.”
Years before the cereal arrived in Duquesne — where it will be distributed to 11 county service areas — Ender and his family opened their doors to strangers.
After Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Topal and her husband, Robert Lin, welcomed a family of Ukrainian parolees through Uniting for Ukraine, a program launched by then-President Joe Biden on April 21, 2022, offering up to 100,000 fleeing Ukrainians a “safe and orderly” means of entering the United States. A Jan. 20, 2025, executive order from President Donald Trump paused acceptance of paperwork required to aid the program.
Ender said he remembers housing the Ukrainian family.
“It was really cool. They were so grateful. It was great helping them, and I liked having them around. They were so fun,” he said.
Welcoming strangers, educating children or supporting food pantries doesn’t happen in a vacuum, Topal explained.
“My immediate thought is Pittsburgh is just this place where things come together and things connect,” she said. “Especially the Jewish community. It’s not about a Jewish community serving the Jewish community, it’s Jewish community serving everyone.”
Young teachers
Before the first palette entered the Food Bank’s Duquesne warehouse on Jan. 7, Jesse Sharrard, director of the Food Pantry, told the Chronicle, “We realized in November that our supply of kosher cereal was starting to dwindle, and we put out a couple calls to the community asking if anybody could donate some kosher cereal, maybe some corn flakes or something like that.”
Ender contacted JFCS and asked if he could reach out to different manufacturers.
“I said, ‘absolutely,’ and I didn’t hear anything for weeks, and then all of a sudden, last week, I got a call from the Food Bank that Kellogg’s had donated an entire truckload of cereal on our behalf,” Sherrard said.
Ender’s actions are “motivating,” Sherrard continued. “He is trying to figure out what he can do to help others, and how he might do things a little bit differently than others.” The adolescent’s approach is “inspiring and helps us make sure that we’re always considering new ways that we can meet the needs of the people who rely on us.”
Within Allegheny County, approximately 159,700 people — one in eight residents — are food insecure, according to the Food Bank.
Needs have dramatically increased, according to representatives of the organization, as prior to the recent government shutdown and a lapse in SNAP benefits, the Food Bank had never distributed a million pounds of food in one week. Since November, however, the Food Bank has distributed that amount four times.
Ender’s efforts will go toward meeting growing needs; still, the Food Bank expects the 19,000 pounds of Kellogg’s products to be consumed within two to three weeks.
Familiar next steps
Maria Carson, director of Jewish education and arts at the JCC, oversaw the Visions of Peace Fellowship and said she was incredibly proud, not only of Ender’s accomplishment, but of his growing sense of autonomy.
“Even though teens don’t have a huge amount of agency in their lives — they can’t stop a war or something like that — they can do small things that might ultimately help peace,” she said.
The fellowship helped Ender appreciate that “peace is not just about not-war,” Topal said. “If you’re hungry, if you don’t have shelter, you can’t think about anything else. You can’t worry about peace until those basic needs are met.”
Topal credited numerous parties for enabling such a sizable donation and called it “pretty amazing” that her son not only used his voice for others but that Kellogg’s “read a letter from a 13-year-old and responded in this way.”
Before the last of the 43 palettes were transferred, Ender told the Chronicle that the lesson of it all is something most teenagers already know.
“It doesn’t hurt to ask,” he said. “You never know what could happen. It could always turn out good.” PJC
Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
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