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youth

Kids Can Make a Difference: Finding Solutions to Poverty and Inequality

, April 1, 2013

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For 19 years, the Kids Can Make a Difference program (KIDS) has been helping kids and their teachers take action against hunger and poverty. Originally a program of WhyHunger, KIDS found a new home in 2010 with iEARN, and has grown steadily since then. WhyHunger is pleased to be part of KIDS’ latest project latest project: the Finding Solutions to Poverty and Inequality Alliance.

Kids Can Make a Difference photo

Kids Can Make a Difference

KIDS founder Larry Levine explains:

We feel that the time has come for teachers and students to use the KIDS teacher guide, Finding Solutions To Hunger (FSH), as a launching pad into a wider association with the leading nonprofit hunger and poverty organizations. As the guide is structured, teachers and students develop their own projects demonstrating what they have learned and putting that knowledge to work to help alleviate the scourge of hunger and poverty in their community and world. While we feel that the present approach is good, there is an enhancement that is beneficial for the students and educators involved in FSH.

We believe that we need to enlist the experts in the field of hunger and poverty to become involved in helping educators understand that there are ways for them to join ongoing projects that go beyond what the teacher guide offers. We understand the time restraints that teachers currently face and feel that having a ready-made menu of projects available to them is a logical next step for KIDS and FSH.

We took our concept to four of the leading antihunger organizations: WhyHunger, Heifer International, Oxfam and World Savvy and invited them to join us as the Finding Solutions to Poverty and Inequality Alliance. We are delighted that all of them enthusiastically embraced the initiative — and we have now also been joined by Food Tank and RESULTS Educational Fund.

With the support and blessing of our partners, we have unveiled a new addition to the KIDS website called Suggested Actions. Each member of the Alliance has a personal page describing ongoing projects that are available for students and teachers to use as extensions of their classroom work. These projects offer a diversity of ways that students can make a difference in their community and world, and some provide the opportunity to dialog with experts in the field.

To learn more about Suggested Actions and/or become active in the Finding Solutions to Poverty and Inequality Alliance, please contact Larry Levine. We welcome all who want to become part of the solution.

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Celebrating Maya

, December 18, 2012

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WhyHunger congratulates our partner and friend Maya Salsedo for winning the prestigious 2012 Brower Youth Award in recognition of her work for food justice, in particular her leadership in developing the Youth Food Bill of Rights. Maya was part of the first class of youth leaders back in 2007 at the youth empowerment and food justice program “Food, What?!” (also a 2012 Harry Chapin Self-Reliance Award winner). The experience turned out to be life-changing for Maya, setting her on a path that also seems likely to change the world.

We are profoundly impressed by Maya’s dedication to transforming the food system by tapping into the power of youth. Since moving on from “Food, What?!,” she has been part of youth food justice organizations Live Real and Rooted in Community, where she is the national Youth Organizer, working with youth across the country to organize around the Youth Food Bill of Rights. Maya is also a full-time student at Mills College.

You can read all about Maya’s story here (along with an account of the high-energy “Food, What?!” trip to the Brower Youth Award ceremony!), watch the video below to learn more about her and her inspiring work, and read the cover story about Maya in Santa Cruz’ “Good Times” magazine!

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On Film: art as activism!

, July 6, 2012

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Want to know what it looks like to “transform” your block through art, food justice activism, community organizing, and a whole lot of love? From our amazing partners Tierra y Libertad Organization in Tucson, AZ, comes this digital story made for Literacy Forsyth Digital Storytelling Camp about Sarah Fox’s experience painting a mural with a group of friends during her internship with TYLO. Grab your spray cans – you’re about to be inspired!

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Building a House for Tim the Hen

, June 1, 2012

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Photos and story by Lorrie Clevenger, Capacity Building Coordinator

Community School PS 211 in the Bronx, NYC, is preparing to receive a flock of chickens for its school garden.  Over two days in May, students, teachers, staff, parents and even a few grandparents pitched in to build a chicken coop to house twelve new hens.

Jason Godlewicz, the computer teacher at P.S. 211 and a second year student of Farm School NYC, worked collaboratively with the community to submit an application to Just Food’s City Chicken Program.   Each year the program supports the establishment of four new city chicken projects at community and/or school gardens in New York City.  The program provides the tools, building materials and all the technical assistance needed to build a chicken coop and learn how to care for their newest community members.

Follow along for a snapshot of this two-day adventure, then find out how you can get involved!

Community School PS 211 students pose with their teacher, Jason Godlewicz, and fellow Farm School NYC student Ai Hirashiki. Community School PS 211 is one of four community/school gardens selected in 2012 for Just Food’s City Chicken Program.

 

Justin, a Just Food City Chicken volunteer who helps with community coop builds around the city, works with a student to line the base of the chicken run, a fenced-in yard for the chickens to run and scratch freely and securely. The run is lined with chicken wire to help protect the chickens from other urban wildlife like rats and raccoons.

 

After lining the base of the run with chicken wire, the students help to fill in the run with the removed soil. Later, the wire at the base of the run will be attached to the aboveground part of the run.

 

Greg Anderson (in foreground wearing a baseball cap), Just Food’s City Farms Program Manager, leads a team of experienced and not-so-experienced coop builders in constructing the wall frames for the chicken coop.

 

Jason, Greg and two more members of the school staff assemble the wall frames.

 

Cutting the rafters for the roof

Ai and Justin use a circular saw to cut the rafters for the roof of the chicken coop.

 

Placing the rafters

Justin and a community member place the rafters and prepare to add the roof.

 

Assembling nesting boxes

After a bit of training from Ai on how to safely use the drill, three of the students assemble nesting boxes. With a little hay for bedding, the nesting boxes will provide a nice place for the hens to lay their eggs.

 

Nesting boxes

Mounted nesting boxes inside the nearly finished chicken coop.

 

Fencing the run

Jason works with students to complete the chicken run by covering the frame with chicken wire.

 

Finished chicken coop

At the end of the second day, the coop is about finished. A few minor details remain--that chicken run needs a door!--but the coop is almost ready for its new residents!

Get Involved!

Join the Conversation:

  • Name that hen!  Leave a comment to share your name ideas with Community School PS211 teachers and students for their 12 hens.
  • Chicken laws?  In New York City, we can keep hens but not roosters.  What about where you are?
  • Do you have chickens?  What advice do you have for Community School PS 211?  Share it in a comment.

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