November-Decisions, Students Against Hunger

Only 18 days left. Then, San Francisco, (Hotel in San Francisco: http://www.sheratonsfo.com/, Tokyo (Hotel in Tokyo: http://www.princehotelsjapan.com/tokyoprincehotel/), and Yanagawa. (One of the Hotels in Yanagawa-Ohana http://www.ohana.co.jp/e/index.html)

Meanwhile, my students continue their work to solve community needs. The fourth graders-Environmental Club and Adopt a Street-Clean-up Program leaders wrote a grant to get books, as they say, to learn and teach about the environment and supplies for a garden they will create and maintain and needed gloves and vests to do their street clean-ups. They want to learn, beautify and clean-up the environment to make our campus and our community aware of our responsibility to care for our earth and animals. It was a great experience.

The high school is starting its Teens Against Hunger Food Drive. Our Student Council sold breakfast during Halloween for a three dollar fee per person. The Food 4 Kids program of the Food Bank can feed a child for a week with three dollars. Our drama department will donate the proceeds of one evening performance to the Food Bank.

Ankita, the leader of the Teens Against Hunger Food Drive-Casady Cans Do Project, has brought the Director of the Teens Against Hunger Youth Board to start our student body thinking about helping the Regional Food Bank eradicate hunger in Oklahoma. She will be asking the student body to donate cans and cash. Flyers are now all over the Upper Division. Last year we collected 4,815 tons of food. Her goal is to beat that number. YAC youth members will be helping Ankita. They have volunteered to become awareness billboards to help students and parents remember doantions to the Food Bank. A few students will work in all divisions early in the mornings.

Our global efforts to end World Hunger by the year 2015 are also starting. The draft of the letter to businesses is done. Leann will try to make a 3 page letter into a one page letter. We will start asking for $34 donations= a T-shirt, a hat and a bracelet. (34=a child fed for a year through the United Nations School Feeding Program). The World Neighbors YAC is ending its recruiting stage and we will start making decisions and assigning responsibilities for the first Youth-Led Global Hunger Awareness Banquet.

I wonder what is the hunger problem in Yanagawa or Tokyo. I wonder is they have Food Banks and what students do to help the hungry in their cities.

Next week, the freshmen and new students will visit different organizations where they think they might want to do service work. They will be in "a fact finding and needs assessment field trip." They have selected the Boys and Girls Club, and the YMCA. The Zoo could not see us because the educational facilities close at 4:45. We will see what happens next week!