10-year-old Gloucester County boy continues succesful hot cocoa stand benefiting Toys for Tots, CHOP

A growing mission years in the making, as a young Gloucester County boy is still working to brighten the holidays for those in need. He's lending a hand a serving up hot chocolate.

"It's like the toys are cool and there's a lot of them too," said 10-year-old Jordan Slippi-Mensah. His living room already looks like Christmas.

"A Mickey Mouse toy, I see an axe throwing set and I see a PJ Mask piano," Jordan said as he pointed out some of the toys. But the toys aren’t for him, his 5-year-old brother Chase or 2-year-old brother Tyler.

"I hope that they get to have a good Christmas because that's our goal every year," said Jordan. The toys and several thousand dollars donated by the community are going to Toys for Tots of Gloucester County and to children at CHOP.

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"It just makes me feel really happy when I get to see all the happy kids in the hospital when they receive the toys," he said.

FOX 29’s Shawnette Wilson introduced Jordan three years ago when he founded a hot chocolate stand for toys at 5-years-old. He and his family serve up hot cups and baked treats as people drop off toys and monetary donations for his mission. He held this year’s stand over the weekend. From 5 to 10-years-old his heart is still in it.

"I like it, because when I was younger, I couldn't do as much as I can do now to help out with the hot cocoa stand," said Jordan, who adds that he’s glad the pandemic didn't stop him.

"It was one of the COVID years we actually raised more money than we ever did, which I thought was crazy, because every year my expectations are that we're going to do good. But I didn’t think we were going to do super, super, super good," he said. He credits his mom's tasty hot chocolate for a lot of the success.

"11 crockpots. I had five going at a time or six at a time then switched it and put it in a big roasting pan," said his mom, Trinna Wooster. Jordan’s stepdad says Wawa is also behind them and put nearly 25 donation boxes in store breakrooms which employees have already filled.

"They really went above and beyond for him just like the rest of our community did," said Stephen Wooster.

The toy drop off ended Saturday but Jordan is still accepting monetary donations which will be presented in a check to CHOP. Anyone who i interested should send donations through December 10th via Venmo @trinnas or Paypal @stephenjwooster@gmail.com.