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Thanks to a nationwide effort co-sponsored by Harvest Snaps and Table for Two (TFT), Harker’s middle school students were able to help combat hunger simply by enjoying free samples of Harvest Snaps snacks handed out by members of the Academic and Cultural/Cuisine Exchange (ACE Club).
The ACE Club, co-led by Jennifer Walrod, director of global education, and middle school math teacher Kathy Pazirandeh, coordinated the arrival and distribution of the snack donations. They were handed out to students during lunchtime last month.
For each snack handed out, Harvest Snaps donated 25 cents to TFT to provide healthy school meals for children in East Africa, as well as in low-income communities in the U.S. ACE Club members raised $250 by distributing 1,000 bags of Harvest Snaps, reported Walrod.
By participating, Harker students had the opportunity to learn about healthy eating habits while providing nutritional school meals for malnourished children. The goal of the program was to elevate awareness on both childhood hunger and obesity around the world.
Through their partnership, Harvest Snaps and TFT raised enough money nationwide to provide more than 100,000 school meals to African children in Rwanda, Tanzania and Ethiopia, as well as in the U.S. In Africa, 25 cents funds one school meal for a child, and in the U.S. it enables school meal upgrades for healthier options in low-income neighborhoods.
“It was fun – and easy!” recalled Walrod, sharing that ACE Club members had created a PowerPoint about the project, which they presented at a schoolwide meeting in advance of the effort.
ACE Club members Jackie Hu, Ritika Rajamani and Niecey Atwood, all grade 6, called the project a great way to have fun while helping others.
“It’s a creative way to not only advertise their project but to raise awareness of the needs of good school lunches. We have good lunches but other schools do not,” said Rajamani.
“It’s something where you can be social and raise awareness of a good cause,” added Atwood.
According to TFT statistics, of the more than 7 billion people in the world, 1 billion suffer from hunger and malnutrition, while 2 billion are overweight or obese.