Local Businesses Fight Childhood Hunger

Details

Created on Monday, 11 April 2016 17:07

Written by Morgan Vaudrien

 LYNDONVILLE- In preparation for H.O.P.E.'s third annual 5k Color Run, eighth grade classes from the Lyndon Town School and Burke Town School teamed up with RuralEdge and other local organizations, for an arts and crafts project to help make difference in childhood hunger within the community.

"Partners from Rural Edge, H.O.P.E., Neighbors Helping Neighbors, and AmeriCorps at Lyndon State College all went to a conference in Louisville, Kentucky in October, and we had to come up with ideas on how to help to community, so we decided to bring awareness to childhood hunger" said Haley Marckres, one of the leaders in this project, and a RuralEdge VISTA, "It's really big in our community, every one out of four kids in Caledonia County alone is food insecure"

Food insecure, meaning that they aren't receiving adequate nutrition, or the appropriate amount of food for a growing child. Marckres says some kids are getting their meals at school, but may not have access to dinner and weekend meals.

H.O.P.E. is hosting their third Color Run on April 30th, and the proceeds from the event are going towards the H.O.P.E Backpack Program, a project designed to help with food insecurity within the community.

"The Backpack Program is giving food to kids at schools that don't have it at home, and I think it's a great thing to be here today to raise that awareness," said Sydney Smith, an eighth grader taking part in the project.

To give a little more background, these backpacks are filled with food for children who may not have access to nutritious meals, to last them an entire month.

Eager to help raise awareness, students came together at the Lyndon Municipal Building, and got to show their crafty side.

"We came up with the idea to have an art display with one hundred wooden children (standing at about 3 feet tall), all bright, vibrant colors for the Color Run, to help go towards the H.O.P.E. Backpack Program" Marckres said.

The wooden children were painted by half of the students, green, yellow, pink and blue, while the other half wrote facts about childhood hunger on large stickers. Halfway through, they had lunch, waited for one side of the cutouts to dry, talked about childhood hunger with one of the coordinators, Dan Haycook. After lunch and the first side of the "gingerbread children" were dry, the students switched roles. The stickers would later be applied to the cutouts. When the colorful children are complete, the next step for them only continues to raise awareness and money for the program.

"Each wooden child is going to be sponsored by a business, and then put on display outside their business, then brought to the Color Run and be put around Bandstand Park where everyone can see them. So right now we're asking businesses, families, and community members to sponsor one of these 'children' which purchases a backpack, and fills it with food for a month," said Marckres.

With one in four children in the county being food insecure, and one and five in the whole state, the students were able to get a real perspective on a pressing issue some people don't even know exists, with the help of arts and crafts to guide them-- not to mention a Friday morning spent out of class.

"I didn't realize how big of a problem it was until I was looking at all the statistics they have over there," said Sydney Smith "But I'm realizing it's a big problem here".

The kids seemed not only engaged with the help of the visual representation through this art project, but hopeful that this will help find a solution.

"Starting with this, and then building to donations and sponsors-- that will definitely help" According to eighth grader Duncan D'Olinpio.

"It's always nice to bring up a generation so that we can already start early on helping to make the world a better place."

To help, registering for the Color Run donates the proceeds to H.O.P.E., which ultimately benefits the Backpack Program, or to sponsor a wooden child and a backpack, contact Dan Haycook at RuralEdge 802-535-3555.

And be on the lookout for these colorful gingerbread children through Lyndonville, every blue one represents a child who is food insufficient right in Caledonia County.