World Hunger Education Service was invited to meet with a group of 5th graders at Yu Ying Public Charter School in Northeast Washington, DC to talk with them about hunger in the world.
Fifth graders at Yu Ying are tasked with completing a capstone project called Exhibition. The Exhibition is a group project where students pick a world issue to research and take action on. They then present their findings to other students at the school who visit their exhibition.
With guidance from their teacher, Amanda Ingram, and Jillian Crandall, the Elementary Director of Yu Ying’s International Baccalaureate Program, I volunteered to meet with them, since I was eager to learn what these young people understood about why hunger exists in the world and what can be done to address it.
On March 25, I met with four Yu Ying 5th grade students who had chosen the issue of world hunger for their group project. I was impressed at their interest in the topic and in their understanding of the causes of hunger and food insecurity, and how they affect people, especially children.
I asked them about the difference between temporary hunger and chronic hunger, which they understood. They were also clear about the problem of food insecurity which affects some 50 million Americans each year.
We talked about the infographic The State of Global Hunger which highlights the magnitude of hunger across the global, concentrated especially in Asia/Near East and Africa. We also talked about hunger in the United States, which affects both rural and urban areas but in different ways. We watched a short video clip focused on a 5th grader in rural Colorado whose family sometimes doesn’t have food and how hunger makes it difficult for her to pay attention in school. We talked about programs that can help alleviate hunger and food insecurity, like the U.S. Government’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and community food banks.
The students already had a good understanding of how unemployment and poverty increase hunger. We also talked about how wars and conflicts cause hunger as people are forced to flee their homes. The students were researching innovations like plumpy food, a non-peanut-based high energy food which can treat acute hunger.
They were also clear about things they can do to address hunger globally and in the United States, like educating their friends and family, not wasting food, and supporting organizations that address hunger like UNICEF and many private voluntary organizations and churches.
I recommended they use some of the World Hunger Education Service hunger quizzes in their Exhibition to see what their fellow students know.
Their interest in world hunger and their curiosity about what can be done to alleviate it gives me hope about what these young people can do.
– Lani Marquez, WHES Board of Trustees
