Kids Can Make A Difference

Three High School Students
Finding Solutions To Hunger: Kids Can Make A Difference raised good questions and provided us with the necessary information needed to answer many of them. This class opened my eyes to problems I was unaware of. I've learned facts that left me with a broken heart and at times left me angry and confused. The fact that 40,000 children die every day because of hunger and hunger related diseases tears my heart. The fact that it doesn't have to happen left me asking the question “why?” Unfortunately, in the time we spent together we didn't answer that important question.
Brendan Garrett, Portsmouth High School ,Portsmouth,NH

This class has changed my opinion about where my life was heading. I
had planned out my future determined to major in French and wildlife biology. Yet this awakening has changed my path. I am now looking into schools with a pre-med program in hopes that one day I will have the strength and courage to volunteer my services to a third world developing country. Instead of going into a profession that will further the technology of the United States or another developed nation, I would like to support the less fortunate people of the world. Brette Soucie, Portsmouth High School, Portsmouth, NH

When I signed up for Finding Solutions to World Hunger I was only filling up my schedule. To be honest, I wasn't really interested in world hunger. I had never come face-to-face with chronic hunger, nor did I know anyone who had. I thought that the only place that people were dying of starvation was in war torn or famished regions of Africa and Asia. I had no idea that people were dying of chronic starvation in this very country!
Kayte Arsenault, Portsmouth High School, Portsmouth, NH

It Could Be Me
I think that hunger is one of the worst problems in the world today because when I see a bum or somebody on the street, train or train station, I feel sorry for them. Because you never know, one day it could be me. I think President Bill Clinton should take better precaution of it instead of helping Bosnia, and them other foreign countries. He should handle the homelessness, crime and hunger over here in the United States. Thats how I feel about it.
Alexander Scrung, Grade 8
School for Academic & Athletic Excellence, New York City

How Kids Can Stop World Hunger
There are many ways that kids can help to stop hunger in the world. Kids can open a soup kitchen in a church basement. Kids can volunteer to serve the poor people. Kids can also send food like crackers, cookies, canned soup, cereal and rice. You should give up some of your food. Kids can raise money to send directly to the poor. We could raise money by having a car wash, dog wash, have a money collection, candy sale and a bake sale. You can adopt a child by sending twenty dollars a month to that child. I think kids should learn more about hunger.
Philip Marrone, Long Island, NY
Locust Valley Intermediate School, Grade 4

Hunger
All over the world, people are hungry. Hungry because they need food. I feel sorry for the people on the streets that are hungry. I dont ever want to be a crack head,etc. I want to be a good eating kind of person. I dont care if I am fat or skinny. But I'm going to eat and be a healthy boy.
Unknown, Grade 8
School for Academic & Athletic Excellence, New York City

Hunger Essay
Almost 13-18 million people die from hunger each year. Nickelodeon, a cable television program, sponsors a telethon for the hungry. It is called the Big Help. 54,828 hours were pledged for helping mother earth and human beings. Students can also help by holding a food drive. We would collect cans or boxes of food to be donated to local people in need of food. Also we could help at the soup kitchens in our local area. Money can also be earned through a garage sale. Coupons could be collected to help people in need. A lot of money can be saved with coupons. There are many other ways for students to raise money to buy food for the hungry. Since the holidays are coming up, this is a good time to use these ideas for helping people. When I'm older, I will use these ideas for helping hungry people. I feel that nobody should be hungry.
Shannon Fitzgerald, Grade 4
Locust Valley Intermediate School, Long Island, NY

Why Is It?
Why is it?
They have to travel for days,
Just to get a little food.
When we can just pick something up,
Whenever we are in the mood.
Why is it?
They can get only small portions,
That barely help them get by,
When we have feasts and banquets,
And meals with food piled high.
Why is it?
Everything is so unfair!
Courtney Kenney, Grade 8
Our Lady of Divine Providence School, Metirie, LA

Just Like Me
Hungry they are, hungry they will be. Hunger is killing 40,000 people a day, just like me. They are young and old dying not because nobody cares, but because nobody knows. So let us do something, so it is known.
Donley W., Grade 8
School for Academic & Athletic Excellence, New York City

Spit
Hunger, hunger everywhere. People outside night and day are starving each and every day. They look for a bite to eat and a warm place to sleep. People are starving here and there and some people don't really care. Theyll walk past a hungry person and spit before they would help a homeless person.
Anthony Mullings, Grade 8
School for Academic & Athletic Excellence, New York City

The Face of Hunger
People on the street begging for money so they can buy something to eat. He has no job and no home. Some use the money to buy liquor and drugs. Some use it to save themselves. I really think its bad for anybody to have to beg for something they don't have too.
Andre Jordan, Grade 8
School for Academic & Athletic Excellence, New York City

Mixed Feelings
Everyday I go outside and see a homeless person. They make me want to do something for them, but I couldn't help them because I could barely help myself. In the newspaper, there was a story about a homeless person who stabbed a dirty needle in a little girls leg. That made me not want to help them, or feel sorry for them, or how they have to live.
Elizabeth Ray, Grade 8
School for Academic & Athletic Excellence, New York City

Dear World Hunger Year,
I am a student at Moss Landing Middle School. Each seventh grade student has to pick an issue that they really like and or care about. I picked world hunger, because when I see children on the T.V. it hurts to see them like that. The seventh graders were asked to make up eight questions to ask about what we need to know.
-Why is the economy so messed up when it comes to a big problem like world hunger?
-How are some countries teaching other countries to become more self-sufficient?
-Why do some countries have more skills than others?
-There are several organizations to help world hunger, what do some of them do?
-What is the main problem that caused poverty?
Here in America, we have a lot of homeless hungry people, what are we doing about it?
-Does overpopulation have a big part to do with world hunger?
-About how many people become homeless and hungry each year?
If and when you have the time, please answer my questions.
Thank you,
Tenisha Thomas
Watsonvile, CA

Dear Sir or Madam,
I would first like to thank you for the work that you and your organization are doing to help stop world hunger. Getting kids and teenagers involved is important. My name is Allison and I am an eighth grader at Wiesbaden American Middle School. Earth Day was celebrated here in many ways, one being to write a worthy organization and ask for information on their cause. That is the reason for writing this letter.

My family and I used to live in Africa and we saw with our own eyes how people are not getting enough to eat. It was very sad to experience and then think about how Americans in general are so wasteful. I know I can't save the world from starving, but I want to do anything and everything that I can. I will ask you again to please send information on this important issue and some things that I can do to help.
Thank you for your time.
Allison Cox Wiesbaden, Germany

To whom it may concern:
My name is April Solomon. I am a seventh grader at Knoch Middle School. Our class is writing to different people because it is Earth Day, and I chose you.

Most of us are aware that there is a great number of people starving in many countries, including ours. In my research, I have found that officials that decide whether or not to help these people think we should not give them our surplus food! I really think that is totally wrong! The officials think that if we feed them, then we will overpopulate the world, but my opinion is that that is just like us killing them when we could be saving them.

I think that we should give them the food. Its not like it would make any money problems, because we already have so much extra surplus food in this country.
They say that they will pay farmers to stop growing food. I think that farmers should grow as much food as possible. This would save the government from spending extra money. We could help and feed and save other peoples lives, and the farmers could still make good money.
I think its wonderful that people want to give part of their money to help others in need. It would help even more if more people got involved.

.. And last, I'd like to say that we, as a country, should all take a stand by giving part of our surplus food to those who are less fortunate than us around the world.

Thank you for taking the time to read my letter.
April Solomon Saxonburg, PA

For further information on the program and how you can become involved, contact: kids@kidscanmakeadifference.org.

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