Kids Combat Community Hunger

UA teacher earns grant to fund service-learning program

By Alex Wallace

If knowledge is power, then Molly Miely’s sixth grade class at Jones Middle School is well-equipped to fight childhood hunger.

Miely, a language arts and reading teacher, recently received a $5,000 Sodexo Foundation School Engagement Grant to lead her students in a semester-long service learning program to help study and address childhood hunger in the community.

The program officially kicked off during Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week, Nov. 10-18, and runs through the end of April, coinciding with Global Youth Service Day. But students started learning about hunger even sooner, beginning with Packing the Streets, a service-learning day project in September, during which they packed 120 meals for the homeless.

Packing the Streets was created seven years ago by Jones teachers. Students have always loved the program, Miely says, and it inspired her to focus on hunger and see what else the kids could do.

“I think our kids are really great resources, and we need to tap into that,” Miely says.

Students from Jones and Buckeye middle schools participated in a Youth Summit on Hunger at Mid-Ohio Foodbank. First, the students took a tour of the food pantry and together responded to scenarios involving hunger. The students then responded to the question, “What can we do to make sure no one goes hungry?”

The students generated lots of ideas and solutions to combat childhood hunger, Miely says.

One specific idea was to offer free popcorn to attendees at a Columbus Clippers baseball game in exchange for a donation of one canned good. Sodexo would provide the popcorn, and the donations would benefit the Mid-Ohio Foodbank. This event may take place in April close to Global Youth Service Day.

Miely’s students will continue to build off these ideas throughout the year and carry out some of the students’ ideas.

On Feb. 13, 250 sixth-graders will tour the food bank and participate in another planning session, and in March, the food bank will host a Critical Issues Summit for students from several schools, adults, community agencies and Americorps to tackle the issue of childhood hunger and homelessness.

Throughout the spring, Miely’s students will work together to create flyers, coupons, brochures, posters and public service announcements that address the issue of hunger. The kids will distribute their projects to the community, inviting donations for the school’s “food line” on April 26, when Miely and her students will walk together to the local food pantry, picking up donations along the way. At the pantry, the kids will sort, count and load the shelves.

Miely says service-learning projects like these make the kids feel good and want to continue to help others. As an added benefit, the service learning ties into the curriculum at Jones, giving teachers the chance to enrich the curriculum and work with the students on issues they are passionate about. As an example, the students are writing about their project’s impact and reflecting on what hunger means to them.

“The learning is deeper. The kids are more engaged because they feel like they are making a difference,” Miely says. “It’s great when kids can change the world, and that’s what service learning does.”

Alex Wallace is a contributing writer. Feedback welcome at laurand@cityscenemediagroup.com.

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