Elementary Students Package 12,000+ Meals to Feed the Hungry
Kindergartener Joshua Kesson is enjoying his part in the packaging of food for Kids Against Hunger.
Thursday, the day before school was out for the summer, Klager Elementary students had a special opportunity to get hands on helping to feed the hungry. For the 9th year, the students assisted in packaging more than 2,000 rice casserole packages that will go on to provide 12,119 meals, each meal costing $.27. This Kids Against Hunger food packaging event was sponsored and coordinated by the Manchester High School Key Club with support from Manchester Kiwanis and Manchester Builders Club.
Different grades took turns throughout the morning taking up places along well organized assembly lines, measuring, pouring, and weighing ingredients and sealing the packages. Even the kindergarteners, although barely tall enough to reach into the bins, were able to complete all of the tasks. Older students from the Builders Club and Key Club were on hand to help, as well as Kiwanis members, teachers and faculty, volunteers from Comerica Bank and Superintendent Cherie Vannatter.
Handling and packaging the food themselves makes the experience tangible and real in a way that just donating money does not. Klager principal Jennifer Mayes explained, “It’s a tremendous service opportunity for our students. The children cherish the tasks involved in preparing the meals–weighing and measuring ingredients, sealing the packages, etc., and look forward to the event each year.” Kiwanis spokesperson Cindy Kenney stated, ”The Klager kids really enjoy having the chance to raise money and then come into the cafeteria and get their turn to help package meals for the hungry children. It is a great teaching/learning experience for all the young people involved.”
Each meal packaged is composed of rice, soy, a dried vegetable blend, and a mineral/protein powder. It can support 6 adults or 12 children. It can be quickly and easily prepared with just water, and is shelf-safe for up to three years.
Much of the food the students packaged will be shipped to “disaster” areas in need like Haiti, Guatemala, or to areas in the U.S. in response disasters like Hurricane Katrina but some of it will be used to feed hungry families right here in Michigan. Organizers could chose to have half of the food donated to a local Food Pantry. Usually organizers designate food pantries in Jackson or Adrian. Manchester CRC Food Pantry has received them in the past and no one takes the food.
Kenney stated that last year parents expressed some concern that the money raised wasn’t being used locally. But, she explained, that if it was donated to anything local, the impact would be very minimal and that we can’t feed a child in Manchester for 27 cents a meal but it makes a huge impact in the lives of hungry children in other parts of the state, country and world.
Klager students helped raise the money used to purchase the ingredients that they helped package. They collected $520 through a coin drive earlier in the year. The Manchester Builders Club at the Middle School held an event called Kids Against Hunger Games and raised $1450. The Manchester Key Club at the High School held a can drive and bake sale and raised $850. Manchester Kiwanis donated $500 bringing the total raised to $3320. Kenny explained why the students raise money themselves, ”The Builders Club and Key Club members work very hard to raise funds to support this amazing food packaging event. We could just buy the food through donations but we see how much more meaningful it is when the kids raise the money themselves. They are very compassionate about the children they are providing food for.”
Kenney stated, ”This could not happen without the joint effort of the Klager School. Kathy O’Meara [a Klager teacher] is a cheerleader for this program and works very hard to raise money, coordinate the entire student body who all participate in the food packaging. Also, Shanna Spickard [Middle school principal] allows Builders Club to host the Builders Club Kids Against Hunger Games during a school day, requires all students to attend and allows Builders Club to sell tickets all week in the cafeteria.”
To date Kids Against Hunger Michigan Coalition based out of Oak Park, MI has shipped over 5,052,024 meals to local community shelters and food depots in Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania and over 14 million meals worldwide since the fall of 2004. These numbers are just for KAH Michigan Coalition (a partner of KAH – which has provided over 100 Million meals)
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