This month, middle school students were invited to participate in a KIDS Club Communication Seminar in conjunction with our fall service project, Feed Chicago. The two-part seminar explored the nature of food insecurity in the city of Chicago.
On Wednesday, November 4 students heard from Elaine Fang, an assistant at Lakeview Pantry. After her presentation, they participated in a discussion led by Kim May, our middle school English Language Arts teacher.
During the second part of the seminar, on Wednesday, November 11, students worked together to write the following entries about what they learned.
Food Insecurity
Do you know that approximately 49.1 million Americans live in households that experience hunger or the risk of hunger? If all these people held hands, they would reach from New York City to Los Angeles, back to NYC, back to LA, all the way back to NYC again! Food insecurity is defined as limited or uncertain access to adequate food for an active and healthy life.
Some experiences of people who are food insecure are having to skip meals because they cannot afford more food, having imbalanced meals, and worrying that the food supply will run out before they are able to buy more groceries.
Millions of people in the United Stated do not have an acceptable food supply. We need to help people who are food insecure. –Isabel Lambert (6) and Kiera Doyle (6)
Lakeview Pantry
For the past 45 years, the Lakeview Panty has been providing food for people on the North Side of Chicago who are food insecure. 45% of their clients have children under the age of 18. 30% of their clients are unemployed. 46% of their clients are disabled or retired, and only 3% of their clients are homeless.
Lakeview Pantry has more than 950 volunteers. One way to help Lakeview Pantry is to come to our church and donate food to the food drive. Also, you and your children can volunteer at the pantry! If you’d like to help out, contact Lakeview Pantry at 773-525-1777. –Caelan Doyle (7) and Bella McGowan (6)
Opportunities to Get Involved
St. James has been partnering with the Lakeview Pantry for years. Currently, we are gathering canned goods every Wednesday as our weekly chapel offerings. We’ve collected all sorts of food, giving people who need it more options. Canned goods are a great product because they can be stored for a long period of time.
We are also doing “Ten for Tom.” You can donate $10 and have a feather added to our Tom turkey. All of this money is given to Lakeview Pantry to buy turkeys!
Finally, each year, in January, the 5th graders host a Hygiene Drive. They Hygiene Drive is where we collect items like shampoo, soap, toothpaste. All of these items also go to the Lakeview Pantry to distribute to people in need.
You can join us by donating food through our food drives, buying a feather for Tom, and participating in the annual Hygiene Drive.
Everyone can make a difference! –Jacob Stroup (6) and Jack Larson (5)
