Hunger within your School
"If you can't feed a hundred people, then just feed one."
What is the true defintion of hunger?
Google: A feeling of discomfort or weakness caused by the lack of food coupled with a desire to eat.
Merriam Webster: A great need for food; a severe lack of food.
Dictionary.com: The painful sensation caused by a lack of food.
Statistics on Hunger in North Carolina:
- 1 in 4 children in North Carolina are food insecure (which is 26.1%).
- 36% of food pantries in North Carolina have to turn people away for lack of available
- food to give to them.
- Approximately 160,000 different people in North Carolina receive emergency food assistance in any give week.
- North Carolina also ranks in the ten worst states in the percentage of children under 18 who are lacking food on a regular basis.
- 81% of North Carolina households recieving food assistance don't know where their next meal is coming from.
Well...what would be the BEST way to help?
According to popular charities commited to ending hunger (like Feeding America), the best way to help end hunger within Carson would be to raise either money or food for the struggling families to use. We knew that we would need something popular that would be easy for people to participate in, so we decided upon a canned/nonperishable food drive.
What's our plan?
- We will talk to Mrs. Drew (she is in charge of stocking the food pantry and its delivery) and ask her what the best stuff to bring in would be. We don't just want to bring in leftover food we've had in our pantries, we want it to be enjoyed by the families it is given to.
- We will host a competition between our class and the AP class to see who can bring in the most items on the list. We chose to host a competition because we believed it would give the students more of an incentive to participate. The prize for raising the most cans is a doughnut party.
- All of the food raised will be donated to the food pantry and delivered on Friday, November 13th. We also took inventory on the food donated in order to check off what food was delivered and what wasn't.
- We will look at the results and determine whether or not our contribution helped make a difference.
Why just our school?
We decided upon focusing on Carson because we have a food pantry that we could donate to and hopefully provide more food for more families. Most people when we mentioned a food pantry didn't even know we had one. The guidance office is about caring for our students, and it's not just limited to our education. So we wanted to contribute to their cause because they do so much for us. Another reason we wanted to focus on our school is because we care about each other. Carson is a school that is made up of students from all over the county, so by feeding the families in need we hopefully are helping people all throughout the community.
Event Information
Canned Food Competition
When?
Sunday, Nov 8, 2015, 12:00 AM
Where?
Jesse C Carson High School, Kress Venture Drive, China Grove, NC, United States
What were the results?
Pictured below is the inventory of all the food raised by our classes.
So...was it a success?
The canned food drive was ultimately a success because we helped feed families struggling ith hunger. We might not have made a huge difference, but whether we fed 50 families or just one, we had an impact. But, there were a few setbacks and if we ever try to redo our canned food competition, there would have to be changes made.
What would we fix?
- We did not promote our competition as well as we had wished. We believed we got so consumed with other components of our project that we didn't take the time to spread the word.
- Participation was lacking. Yes, we should have worked harder to promote our cause, but e weren't always exactly listened to.
- We didn't manage our time very well. We took a lot of time deciding upon what our prject should be about so when we finally agreed, we didn't have a lot of time to commt to our choice.
Could we try it again?
OF COURSE! Even though some things didn't go as planned, we can learn from our mistakes and move forward. Cause although we didn't have as much food as we had hoped, it put a smile on our faces to know that the families that got our food would be thankful.
Polls/Surveys
During our project, we posted polls on social media asking kids (primarily kids form Carson) questions about hunger and the food pantry. Wwe hoped by seeing the results in would give us knowledge about our student body and their thoughts about the food pantry.
Poll#1
Question: Have you ever went to bed hungry because there was not enough food in your house?
Poll #2
Question: If you were struggling with hunger would you go to the school pantry for help?
Poll #3
Question: Have you ever not known where you next meal is coming from?