Hunger 101

Yesterday, I presented Hunger 101 to a group of thirty middle school students who are taking part in a summer program run by the Charter Oak Cultural Center.  Yes, this many middle school students in a room would scare many people away, but I love working with kids of all ages.

The young people get really engaged in the role playing and the unfairness of it all, so I just hope that they take away some real lessons from the exercise.  And I was really pleased to have one young man blurt out in the middle of the debrief, "the system is broken."  Yes, indeed, that's the point!  The system is broken, not the people who work or volunteer in it and not the people who need help feeding their families!


I think they may have picked up that and more for here are some of the comments students made on their evaluation forms:

• The most important thing I learned is how hard it is for some people.
• The most important thing I learned is that you have to be a legal citizen to get SNAP (food stamps)
• It was a lot of trouble to get enough money for food
• Not everyone has enough to eat
• You need to fill out a lot of papers to get food stamps
• Many people have problems just trying to get food on the table
• It is important to help others in need
• It's important to save and spend your money wisely