Upon entering Sam Adams Elementary, visitors may see a wall decorated with a paper cutout of a yellow school bus complete with black windows and wheels. Beneath the school bus sits several boxes worth of canned vegetables, boxed meals and other non-perishable food items.

While the paper school bus was created by the school art teacher, the exhibit serves more than a visual purpose. The food collected in the hallway will be used to fill an actual, regulation-sized bus to deliver to local food pantries.

The project, which began Nov. 1 and will run until Nov. 17, involved Sam Adams staff and students reaching out to local businesses to donate non-perishable food items to fill an entire bus full of items to give to families in need.

“We thought it was a really fun idea [to fill a bus],” said assistant principal Debora Stermer.

The project is being spearheaded by the school’s Kindness Committee, which aims to promote charitable causes and kindness within the Sam Adams population.

“We started the Kindness Committee last year and we’ve been doing it within our building,” Stermer said. “This year, we wanted to take it out of our building and into the community.”

The Kindness Committee was born out of Sam Adams’ school motto that the students repeat every morning, “I am smart, I am kind, I am important and I am here to learn.”

The motto has been with the school since students and staff moved into their current building. Eventually the staff realized that while they were working hard to improve student test scores and learning, they were not emphasizing kindness as much as they would like, said Kindness Committee member Denise Gendron.

“Our world just needs more kindness,” Gendron said. “We thought we would start within our school to spread kindness.”

The work of the Kindness Committee started out small by saying good morning to students as they walked in the door, before blooming into larger action such as filling a bus. The goal of these actions is to show children what kindness looks like, Gendron said.

“We would recognize when a child did something kind and say, ‘Wow, you are so kind,’” Gendron said. “It just kind of took off from there.”

The children of Sam Adams embraced the committee, leading them to look into the community to see where their kindness would be most needed, Gendron said. This eventually led to the conceptualization of the bus project.

The students at Sam Adams will be helping to deliver the food, which will continue their lessons on kindness and giving back to others, Stermer said.

“The kids will see that food go to the churches, so they will see this project through beginning to end,” she said. “We want [the students] to think outside themselves. It’s not just about them. We also want them to realize that just because they are a student, it doesn’t mean they can’t make a big impact. Kindness makes a big impact on others.”

Though the bus project will be the Kindness Committee’s first community project, Stermer said that the group will continue to work both in the school to spread kindness.

“Look out,” Stermer said. “We’re not done yet. We are just getting started. We are going to continue this.”

The post office, Cassopolis Dental, Porky’s, Kemner Iott Benz, Midwest Energy, Ed Lowe Foundation, Stermer Farms, Greater Niles Federal Credit Union, Woodlands, B&E Café and Mellville’s Campground were businesses that had contributed to the bus project at the time of interview, though other businesses are still welcome to participate.

Stermer said she, and all of the Kindness Committee, is grateful for the community support.

“These businesses are helping us to spread kindness even further,” Stermer said.