Service Based Learning

My community based unit of instruction is titled Food Security and Sustainability that focuses on the issues of food security, factors that influence food security, and the distribution of wealth, food and population. Throughout the unit, students learned about what causes food insecurity and made connections between the distribution of wealth and food compared to population. They learned what actions they can take in their communities to help end sustainability issues and decrease food insecurity at the local level. Students created displays in the classroom and presented them at the Greenwood Meal Packing Event this year, sponsored by the Perry Valley Grange in support of the Perry and Juniata County Food Banks. The students would present their projects at the event and participate in the meal packing during the event. This would benefit the community and provide an applied service learning opportunity for students to connect their learning in the classroom to real community-based needs.  Greenwood puts on an annual “Hunger Event” each winter that benefits the community and educates the public about the reality and severity of food insecurity and hunger. The school and FFA chapter have been hosting a hunger event each year for seven years. Since the start of the annual hunger event, Greenwood has raised over $45,000 with support from the Perry Valley Grange that has benefited the Perry and Juniata County Food Banks. The school/ chapter has chosen to benefit both food banks because the Greenwood School District overlaps within both Perry and Juniata Counties. Typically, financial support is raised for the food banks, however, with the meal packing event, actual meals are packaged and donated to the food banks.

The annual hunger event is operated on a rotational basis. The first year, Greenwood hosted a hunger banquet, where community members were served meals that represented the food available to those around the world. Following the hunger banquet, the chapter hosts the meal packing event the following year. After the second meal packing, Greenwood will elect another type of support for the food banks. In previous years, this included a volleyball tournament and a BINGO night to raise the funds for the food banks. This rotation is so that the hunger banquet will have the same wow factor for newer people than it would if it were constantly done. The meal packing event is very costly to pull off, and can require a number of fundraisers and community support to undertake. This is the second time Greenwood has done a meal packing event.

The partnership with the Perry Valley Grange began seven years ago when the chapter wanted to host a hunger banquet-but lacked the resources to pull it off. Since then, the Perry Valley Grange has been an integral part of hosting the hunger events at Greenwood. This year, the Perry County Grange catered the food for the night and lend financial support for the event. Because the event did not meet the typical timeline for grant funding, it wasn’t feasible to apply for any grant funding. In lieu of grant support, the Perry Valley Grange pledged to provide support for the 50,000 meal goal in the event that the fundraising efforts proved insufficient to cover the costs. The membership of the Perry Valley Grange voted on this at their February meeting and agreed to pledge financial support

The Grange had worked with us to help draft a letter to announce the event that was sent out to area churches, fraternal organizations and other local organizations. Another huge means of support was the Greenwood FFA Alumni Chapter, who we contacted and had run both a sandwich and pie fundraiser. The organizations at the school are limited in their fundraising allowances, so we reached out to the alumni to act as a booster for the event. We reached out to Meals of Hope who would send us all of the oatmeal and supplies for packing the food. The cost for 50,000 meals was $12,500, which we were able to raise through fundraising and community sponsorship. The gymnasium actually had to be requested for the event back in August, as the date of the meal packing was the only day of the year that was available on a Friday night. To request the gym, we had to contact the athletic director Adam Sheaffer and request that the gym at the elementary school be kept open that Friday. The event was also advertised on Love 99 and 92.5. I submitted an article to Lancaster Farming through the PA FFA Association for my DYI project.

During the event, we had the space set aside for four hours and ran the event in two shifts, and the Grange took care of the registration by taking names and emails. Teddy Trip from Meals of Hope was the one who was our contact to the organization. He was sent in from Georgia to show us how to setup and help us undertake the event.  Doug Bonsall announced a community service challenge that the Grange was hosting this year for the organization’s centennial anniversary. Chapter president, Ethan Brummer and county commissioner Brenda Benner welcomed the guests to the event, which totaled 258 people. The students were originally supposed to display their Food Security and Sustainability Projects at the event, however, the classroom experience component to this unit had to take place following the meal packing due to snow days and area contest dates. The students will display their projects at the Greenwood Wildcat Symposium this May instead of the original plan to show them at the meal packing event.

In total, we were able to package 48,000 meals in just under four hours. All of the food was then donated through Meals of Hope to the Perry and Juniata County Food banks. Any financial donations provided to the chapter after the order from Meals of Hope were directly donated to the food banks. For reaching our goal, Meals of Hope will financially support a student to go to the Washington Leadership Conference this year. The students were able to connect their learning of food security and the issues we face as a society in dealing with food insecurity, with a hands-on community service component that meets the needs of their area.