After raising $8,400 for Kids Against Hunger, school to deliver food itself
Students at St. Lawrence School in Utica spent the school day Jan. 15 packaging 30,000 meals as part of a campaign for Kids Against Hunger. The students also raised the money for the meals themselves.Utica — A scoop of a soy mix, some dehydrated vegetable blend, a vitamin seasoning and a cup of rice, measured to exactly 13.8 ounces, then placed into a clear bag.
Scoop by scoop and bag by bag, the students at St. Lawrence Catholic School in Utica are making an impact not only on their community, but around the world, too.
On Jan. 15, the students at St. Lawrence, along with Kids Against Hunger, a nonprofit humanitarian food relief organization, packaged 30,000 meals for people who are struggling with hunger.
“As a community school and parish we’re trying to do more Christian service projects and not just affect our community, but affect people worldwide, which was our actual goal,” said Lisa DiMercurio, assistant principal at St. Lawrence. “This is our first big worldwide service.”
From 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., classes and volunteers totaling about 720 people took turns packaging meals for the hungry.
“As a school, what I see here is that our kids love to be involved in helping,” DiMercurio said. “Whenever we do a Christian service project, we get 150 percent participation. We have a really great group of parents and kids that care about the community and other children and families.”
Stations were set up with about 10 students and volunteers. Four would scoop the ingredients and one would hold the bag. The bag would then be weighed and sealed properly, and lastly, set aside to be shipped to its next destination.
Nolan Lawroski, a seventh-grader at St. Lawrence, enjoyed his time as a package-weigher and admitted there were some extra incentives to helping those less fortunate.
“It’s kind of fun,” he said. “The majority of it all is packing it, but what we’re doing is weighing which is fun because you have to get it just on the right amount. It’s kind of like a game; it’s not like actual work.
“Plus it’s a little bit fun to miss out on your classes to help.”
The 30,000 meals the students and volunteers packed together will head to three destinations: locally, at The Agape Center in Romeo and to St. Vincent de Paul; worldwide, to one of the Kids Against Hunger-sponsored Third-World countries; and lastly, to a Kids Against Hunger warehouse in case of natural disasters.
“What these kids are doing not only blesses folks in their own community,” said Michael Burwell, executive director of Kids Against Hunger, “but it helps to provide nutritious meals to those who are in need all over the world.”
According to Burwell, one in five children in the United States go to bed hungry and 14,200 children die on a daily basis from hunger.
“It’s one of those things where you never know whose heart you’re going to touch as a volunteer aspect goes,” he said. “But you’re always touching somebody and somebody always has something to give.”
The Christian service idea of bringing in Kids Against Hunger was proposed by Kris Weingartz, a mother at St. Lawrence, who had previously worked on similar projects at another parish.
Weingartz presented the idea at a Parent Teach Organization meeting and the idea took off.
“I was happy to bring Kids Against Hunger to St. Lawrence because it was something the entire school could participate in,” she said. “Kindergarteners to eighth-graders, and I was happy to watch them all work together.”
Students had one week in late November to sell Kids Against Hunger T-shirts and get monetary donations to reach a goal of $6,000.
After hitting $3,000, St. Lawrence Principal Cathy Ciolino matched her students’ contributions with a $3,000 donation from the principal’s budget, and together, they exceeded expectations.
“I initially was hoping the kids would raise $6,000,” Weingartz said, fighting back tears. “They raised $8,400 so we could make 30,000 meals. In just one week, they raised that much money.”
St. Lawrence plans on personally delivering the local packages to The Agape Center and St. Vincent de Paul, Weingartz said.
Through the work done by St. Lawrence and with the help of Kids Against Hunger, hundreds of people will be fed locally and worldwide. Lawroski said he enjoyed his time and has a new appreciation for what other people go through.
“It feels a lot better because sometimes when we have meals on the tables and we say ‘ah, it’s gross, we don’t want it,’ but some of the other kids — they don’t even have a meal to say they’re thankful for,” he said. “It’s a good thing.”
