“In Toronto, one million people accessed food banks last year.”
Source: CBC Radio
“It is estimated that half of all food bank users are children.”
Source: Toronto Star
“Double Up to Fight Hunger”
Thanksgiving Food Drive
The headlines tell a story of the crisis unfolding before our very eyes. Children, some no more than infants, are suffering the effects of hunger as you read this letter. This year, a group of children in our community are rallying to answer the call of social justice. This year, hunger’s enemy will be the youngest, the children of our community, and they need our help.
On Thursday October 4, and Friday October 5 Three Valleys Public School will accept food donations for community residents. The “Double Up to Fight Hunger” campaign, created by students, parents and teachers represents what a community can do when it combines resources to tackle an urgent problem. This group of elementary students discovered, through the board’s social justice/character education curriculum that a staggering number of children their age go to bed hungry every night. Through classroom discussions, they soon realized that hunger exists in every community, including their own. These young people and their teachers brainstormed ideas to address the problem and realized that if they all gave double the effort to reach people, convinced double their friends and family members to donate, and persuaded all the people they knew to reach double their friends and families, they could make a difference and help fight hunger. Thus was born the “Double Up to Fight Hunger” concept.
Soon after the idea was conceived, Magic Bus Company in Toronto volunteered to have a double decker bus transport the donations from the school to the food bank. The students did some quick calculations and realized that a bus of that size could hold a ton of food. Further investigation revealed that a ton of food could feed 1000 children.
As the idea evolved, more teachers at Three Valleys got “on board.” When the school council heard about the project they joined the kids. The press has heard about this unique project and its anticipated they will be on hand to cover the day’s events. Now, as you read this, children at Three Valleys are exchanging Facebook messages with family members urging them to contribute to the food bank, creating email blasts to inform their friends of the project, and designing web pages with a link to the school website that promote the endeavour. As this event draws near, the community is in high gear, applying a herculean effort to address this serious problem.
Please come and donate non perishable items for this fantastic cause!
Thank you!
Karen
