Backpack Buddies: Addressing Hunger and Poverty Through Service-Learning
Presentation Format
Individual Presentation
Intended Audience
All Audiences
Presentation Description
What happens when middle grades curriculum is used to address community issues? Eighth grade students and teachers take action! In partnership with UGA Professors-in-Residence, a math teacher at Hilsman Middle School (HMS) engaged students in an investigation of the most pressing problems in their community. Not surprisingly, students at HMS, a Professional Development School serving 85% economically disadvantaged students, recognized the prevalence of poverty and hunger. Whether they should take action to address these issues, however, was not as clear-cut to the students, as is evidenced by the following comments:
“Poverty is something people have a choice about…It’s sad that Georgia is [one of the poorest states] in the US, but it really doesn’t change the way I look at things….Poverty happens to people for a reason….When we are helping people, we only know that they need our help. We don’t know how they got there….Poorer people might need help, but they have to make their own life instead of counting on others to make it better….We do have to work to make our state better, and poverty is a major thing we have to work on.”
Through a series of conversations, experiences, and reflections, the students began to realize that, no matter the reason, hunger was a reality for many of their classmates. They decided it was up to them to do something about it, and the HMS Backpack Buddies Project was born. Project activities included collecting food donations for HMS families, collecting backpacks to fill with food donations, and learning about and volunteering in a local food bank that serves the entire northeast Georgia area.
When students investigated food assistance programs available to their classmates, they found that only nine students in their school of 700+ were receiving food assistance during weekends via the Food 2 Kids program. In trying to determine why so few eligible HMS students were served by the program, students found that the low number of students served was due to at least two reasons: 1) Students were embarrassed by receiving a grocery bag filled with food on Friday afternoons, and 2) There was not enough food donated to meet the needs of eligible students.
After discovering this information, the 8th grade students decided they could address the lack of donations by soliciting food donations from local businesses and community members and collecting food donations at school events. They also decided to preserve the dignity of students receiving assistance by collecting backpacks in which to place the food. Students believed that embarrassment was lessened when peers were given a backpack filled with food as opposed to see-through plastic grocery bags. Since its pilot year, the Backpack Buddies service-learning program has grown substantially—in part due to grant funding—and now includes the entire 8th grade class working to raise awareness of this critical need in their community.
Join us for an interactive session as school and university faculty share processes and activities implemented, resources accessed, and lessons learned from engaging students in community action.
Location
Embassy Suites Hotel
Start Date
4-13-2016 5:00 PM
End Date
4-13-2016 7:00 PM
Recommended Citation
Thompson, Kathy; Buschbacher, Rita; Naughton, Conor; Blankenship, Selena; and Andrews, Gayle, "Backpack Buddies: Addressing Hunger and Poverty Through Service-Learning" (2016). Gulf South Summit on Service-Learning 2016. 58.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/gss/2016/2016/58
Backpack Buddies: Addressing Hunger and Poverty Through Service-Learning
Embassy Suites Hotel
What happens when middle grades curriculum is used to address community issues? Eighth grade students and teachers take action! In partnership with UGA Professors-in-Residence, a math teacher at Hilsman Middle School (HMS) engaged students in an investigation of the most pressing problems in their community. Not surprisingly, students at HMS, a Professional Development School serving 85% economically disadvantaged students, recognized the prevalence of poverty and hunger. Whether they should take action to address these issues, however, was not as clear-cut to the students, as is evidenced by the following comments:
“Poverty is something people have a choice about…It’s sad that Georgia is [one of the poorest states] in the US, but it really doesn’t change the way I look at things….Poverty happens to people for a reason….When we are helping people, we only know that they need our help. We don’t know how they got there….Poorer people might need help, but they have to make their own life instead of counting on others to make it better….We do have to work to make our state better, and poverty is a major thing we have to work on.”
Through a series of conversations, experiences, and reflections, the students began to realize that, no matter the reason, hunger was a reality for many of their classmates. They decided it was up to them to do something about it, and the HMS Backpack Buddies Project was born. Project activities included collecting food donations for HMS families, collecting backpacks to fill with food donations, and learning about and volunteering in a local food bank that serves the entire northeast Georgia area.
When students investigated food assistance programs available to their classmates, they found that only nine students in their school of 700+ were receiving food assistance during weekends via the Food 2 Kids program. In trying to determine why so few eligible HMS students were served by the program, students found that the low number of students served was due to at least two reasons: 1) Students were embarrassed by receiving a grocery bag filled with food on Friday afternoons, and 2) There was not enough food donated to meet the needs of eligible students.
After discovering this information, the 8th grade students decided they could address the lack of donations by soliciting food donations from local businesses and community members and collecting food donations at school events. They also decided to preserve the dignity of students receiving assistance by collecting backpacks in which to place the food. Students believed that embarrassment was lessened when peers were given a backpack filled with food as opposed to see-through plastic grocery bags. Since its pilot year, the Backpack Buddies service-learning program has grown substantially—in part due to grant funding—and now includes the entire 8th grade class working to raise awareness of this critical need in their community.
Join us for an interactive session as school and university faculty share processes and activities implemented, resources accessed, and lessons learned from engaging students in community action.
Program Abstract
What happens when middle grades curriculum is used to address community issues? Students and teachers take action! In partnership with University of Georgia faculty, Hilsman Middle School teachers and students investigated pressing community problems. Through conversations, experiences, and reflection, students realized that hunger was a reality for many of their classmates, and the Backpack Buddies Project was born. In this session, faculty share processes/activities implemented, resources accessed, and lessons learned from engaging students in service-learning.