High School Student Leadership: Service Learning Hunger Projects

Photo from the Canstruction Madison 2012 website.

Leadership programs and courses are becoming popular in middle and high schools. So is character education and service learning, which is a great tool for teaching high school students leadership. Turning student creativity loose and letting them take real action in teams can be good for student learning and development. Here are some example high school student projects around the topic of hunger. 

Canstruction Madison
Twenty two teams competed to build structures out of food donated to the Middleton Outreach Ministry Food Pantry.  Teams consisted of student organizations, architect firms and design companies.  Over 1000 people came to see the canstructions, and in 2012, over 28 tons of food were donated.  Read a recap of the even here.

Can Creation Build
Student teams raised money on behalf of a local food bank.  The five teams who raised the most competed to build a structure out of canned goods.

Hunger Knows No Season Challenge
Students form competitive teams, campaigning through their neighborhoods in order to gather collections for a local food pantry.  The team that collects the most food wins a pizza party.

Share Our Strength’s Great American Bake Sale
Culinary students picked some of their favorite recipes, baked them during class and sold the results as part of a nationwide anti-hunger effort.

Empty Bowls Project
Students created artistic bowls which were sold for $10 to community members, along with a simple meal of bread and soup.  Proceeds benefited a local food bank.

Cupcake War to Fight Hunger
Students, faculty and community members baked cupcakes with various springtime themes.  The cupcakes were sold to help end childhood hunger.

Free Rice Project
Students answer questions in a variety of subjects from Math to SAT preparation in an online game from the World Food Programme.  Correct answers award grains of rice that will be donated to those in need.

 

Fitchburg/Leominster Free Rice Competition
Students from two neighboring high schools used the Free Rice Project to create a friendly competition, earning over one million grains of rice. This innovative approach utilizes gaming and a global humanitarian agency.

Photo by Ruthie Hauge/Sun-Times Media

Houston Vs. Hunger
Students raised money by selling T-shirts and girl scout cookies, as well as raising donations from local businesses.  Collectively, the school raised nearly $15,000 and put together over 40,000 care packages for a local food bank.

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