The programs funded through this grant will engage teachers and students, grades K-12, in learning about the incidence of childhood hunger in their community, and in leading meaningful activities that facilitate access to nutritious food for all children, especially those most at risk.
Cicely L. Tyson School of Performing Arts Middle and High School
East Orange, NJ
Teacher: Sharonda Allen
This service-learning project seeks to serve as many as 1,000 hungry children, and will also include the collection of over 200 pounds of food through facilitating healthy food feasts and volunteer food drives, feeding children in shelters and group homes. Students at the Tyson School of Performing Arts School in East Orange, New Jersey will avoid collecting non-perishable items that do not have high nutritional value. Instead, they will collect fresh produce items and fresh baked goods. Students will compare Hydroponic techniques and "Coffee Table Garden" techniques to aid families in innovative and practical solutions for healthy food access. Their research will be used to host a community-wide Thankfulness Feast during the National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week of November 14-20, 2011. The students want to make an impact on childhood hunger and food insecurity so that children in East Orange and the surrounding areas will be served healthier foods.
Forest Lake Area Learning Center
Forest Lake, MN
Teacher: Amy France
Students at Forest Lake Area Learning Center in Minnesota plan on collecting hundreds of non-perishable food items for the local food shelf in the fall. They will organize an “Empty Bowls” event through which they hope to funds to feed local children and families. In order to educate the community, students will create informational posters about hunger and homelessness to be on display throughout the week of November 14-20, 2011. Students and staff will also volunteer at local organizations like “Feed My Starving Children”.
Grand Blanc West Middle School
Grand Blanc, MI
Teacher: Crystal Chapa
From November through April 2012, students at Grand Blanc West Middle school in Grand Blanc, Michigan will be engaged in organizing a food drive in their community. They hope to collect at least 1,000 pounds of food, $500 in donations, and to serve over 100 meals per month at the local food bank. They will also prepare and pack nearly 100 boxes per monthly visit. Food Bank of Eastern Michigan, a local partner, will provide a variety of resources and help identify additional ways that students can help. Students will discuss and distribute this information throughout the school and community.
Hacket Middle School
Albany, NY
Teacher: Margie Rector
Hacket Middle School in Albany, New York is participating in a Semester of Service™, where students will increase community awareness of childhood hunger. Students will help the community become aware of alternative ways of eating instead of the high fat diets that many live on. They plan to develop and implement a service-learning project so that children in their community have better access to nutritional foods, substantially benefiting the clients of the pantries as well as the pantries themselves.
Hurt Park & Lincoln Terrace 21st Century Community Learning Center
Roanoke, VA
Teacher: Meredith Withers
To kick off this project, students at Hurt Park Elementary and Lincoln Terrace Elementary School in Roanoke, Virginia will participate in the Hundred-Thousand Pound Food Drive, a 9/11 Day of Service event. The youth will volunteer at a local church to assist with the collection of food donated in the community. Family Service of Roanoke Valley (FSRV) has a longstanding relationship with Roanoke City Public Schools. FSRV will engage students in setting a goal for how much food they would like to collect. Throughout the project, students will actively participate in Positive Action lessons addressing the topic of proper nutrition and access to nutritious foods for children in the Roanoke Valley community.
Lowell School District
Lowell, OR
Teacher: Deborah Thiessen
Students at Lowell School District in Oregon will make a positive difference in their community by increasing the number of food and bread baskets that families receive. The students will be participating in The Hunger Project throughout the school year and completing various components. Throughout their service-learning experience, students will learn about nutritious meals, prepare inexpensive meals, work at the food bank, and help with the green house project. Their work in helping others is intended to lead to greater involvement between the school and the community.
MineolaHigh School
Garden City Park, NY
Teacher: Nancy Regan
The current economic downturn has changed the face of hunger on Long Island leaving many low-income and even middle-class Long Islanders struggling for the first time. Students at Mineola High School students will work closely with their community partner, Island Harvest, in continuing a student-led food drive. During National Hunger and Homeless Awareness Week, November 14th through 20th, they will connect the academic study of American history to childhood hunger in their community. The goal is to collect 2000 pounds of food. Students will also be creating “themed” baskets such as baskets for families with small children, infants, and breakfast baskets.
Montgomery County Public Schools
Rockville, MD
Teacher: Kim Jones
Students from 24 high schools in Montgomery County,Maryland are identifying ways that they can help 627 homeless children in their area. In September, students will attend a local “Partnership to End Childhood Hunger” meeting. This meeting, along with other activities will help students learn more about the short and long term problems associated with hunger. They will visit homeless shelters and select one family shelter to “adopt”, for which they will determine the amount of food to be collected for the children over a period of at least one month.
Multi Development Services of Stark County
Canton, OH
Teacher: Terrance Jones
Until 2009, the Multi Development Services of Stark County (MDS) operated a food pantry, but because of the economic downturn that affected nonprofits like MDS, the food pantry funding was lost. MDS will identify one-hundred 8th through 10th grade students in Canton City Schools to participate in this service-learning experience, beginning October 31 and ending on May 11, 2012. By engaging Families Eating Daily (FED) youth in the process of reviving the food pantry and providing direct-service to afterschool elementary children, FED will also bring student voices to join in the community discussion. These FED youth intend to promote social consciousness and influence policy, creating a significant impact on the problem in their community.
Oxford Hills School District
Oxford, ME
Teacher: Patrick Carson
With one in five families facing food security and hunger issues in the Oxford Hills region of Maine, middle school students have decided to become part of the solution – and give back to the community. The student-run Roberts Farm is their effort to develop and run a 4-acre mini farm, from which 20,000 pounds of produce will be donated the Maine Harvest For Hunger program to benefit local families in need. Science, technology, nutrition and food security curriculum units are being developed as part of this service-learning initiative.
Pinellas Park Middle School
Pinellas Park, FL
Teacher: Colleen Quinn
Students at Pinellas Park Middle School in Florida are organizing several food drives to provide community children with hundreds of meals. Students will harvest the food weekly from the gardens they have planted. After the harvest, a van or bus will take the students and food down to CASA or other shelters that provide meals for hungry children. At least once a month, students will prepare a meal for the residents with the food provided by the garden or food drive. The program is designed to show the community the positive effects of a community garden and how a community can come together to nourish the residents. The program is designed to enhance both leadership and specific content knowledge acquisition while engaging students in social change.
Seattle World School
Seattle, WA
Teacher: Ryan Miller
Students at the Seattle World School in Seattle, Washington plan to work with either a local food bank or church to grow, collect, and cook potentially hundreds of pounds of food to distribute it to hungry families in need. They will begin the school year by administering a community survey to investigate the extent of the food security needs. Students will use this information to plan the service component of the program. Their goal is to prepare and package one meal for approximately 50 people per week. Seattle World Cooks! will take place during weekly or bi-weekly sessions held over 14 weeks. After their project, the cooking club will continue, building long-term sustainability.
Tennyson Middle School
Waco, TX
Teacher: Bethel Erickson-Bruce
Many of the Tennyson Middle School students are from a North Waco neighborhood targeted as the largest food desert in the city. At the beginning of the school year, students in the Middle School Gardening Club will be prepare their garden for growing crops. The Urban Gardening Coalition (UGC) and its partners will work with youth and neighbors from North Waco to increase access to fresh healthy food in the neighborhood, by providing guidance in growing gardens, nutrition education and healthy cooking. The school’s Semester of Service™ will strengthen community partnerships in addressing access to and affordability of nutritious food and healthy lifestyles through continued participation in maintaining the garden, leading nutrition lessons, and harvesting produce.
