Making a Difference, One Pantry at a Time
Making a Difference, One Pantry at a Time
Embedded Files
The following piece was submitted by Nora Marsh, a PAHS freshman and member of Krista Campbell’s block four Character Education class. The class has been researching hunger and asked The Green Echo to run the piece as a means of awareness and advocacy.
As Pen Argyl’s Character Education course cements its place in the curriculum, students continue to come up with new and exciting ways to execute the service learning requirement for the course.
Krista Campbell, English teacher and Character Education advisor, is teaching a section of the course this year and her students have decided to focus on the issue of hunger.
The class is going to a food pantry for this project. They would like to raise awareness about hunger. Hunger is not only the feeling of wanting something, hunger is also the affected state of not being able to access food. Hunger isn’t limited to one area or person, it is a widespread problem that needs to be solved. Hunger is affecting neighborhoods all around the world, and we need everyone’s help to stop it.
The class researched and gave presentations on hunger in Northampton County, Pennsylvania, the U.S., and the World. They also made bulletin boards to educate the school. They will be going to the West End Food Pantry to unload food trucks and sort it for the pantry for food insecure individuals. Additionally, they had a bake sale to raise money for the Families First Backpack Program. They also created a video for the morning announcements which discusses hunger.
The class interviewed a few people around the school to get a sense for our community’s awareness regarding hunger.
Oliver Palmer-Gaugler, freshman, was asked how many child deaths are linked to hunger? He took a while to think of an answer but decided on 20%. He was incorrect, the correct answer is 50%. That is half of the world’s childhood deaths being attributed to hunger.
Next, we spoke to Wesley Bentley, freshman. We asked him what country has the lowest food insecurity? He answered Finland, which is correct at 10.5% food insecurity.
We then interviewed Cainan Herfurth, freshman. We asked him what food do you think is the most needed in food banks and pantries in the state of Pennsylvania? He replied with a few different answers, but eventually got canned goods which is one of the two correct answers. The other is peanut butter.
Next we interviewed two teachers. First, we asked Sarah Flynn, math teacher, which state do you think has the highest food insecurity in the United States? She said Louisiana, which was incorrect. The correct answer is Arkansas at 18.9% food insecurity.
Photo courtesy of Kayla Weeast
Character Educations goal in Pen Argyl is to extend the teachings of the classroom into the home. One of the most crucial topics, hunger, was the topic of the conversation among students, ( Pictured left to right; Nora Marsh, Merlin Leddy, Andrew Breneman.)
Lastly, Krista Campbell, English teacher, was asked how many children as a fraction in Northampton County do you believe sleep hungry every night? Her answer for the question was 1/7, which was correct. Then, we asked her how many child deaths are linked to hunger? She responded with 25%, which as stated earlier is wrong. She was shocked that 50% of children’s deaths were linked to hunger.
If you wish to help people fight hunger, then here are different places you can go. The Mission Of Love Food Bank in Bangor is currently accepting donations and currently accepting new volunteers. The Nazareth Area Food Bank is accepting donations of money, while the Hope UCC Food Pantry is accepting donations of food and clothing. The Pen Argyl Salvation Army is currently accepting new volunteers to help.
Page updated
Report abuse