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Scholastic Magazine - Making a Difference
Article by: Lauren McCollum
How can kids from Sabetha, Kansas, begin to understand world hunger? Teacher Carol Spangler believes it’s by working to end it. What started as a simple lesson on hunger is now a nonprofit organization, Grains for Hope, that sends fortified grain to families in Mozambique.
With the guidance of Mrs. Spangler, Sabetha students run the organization. They meet with area business leaders, write grant proposals, arrange to have Midwestern grains bagged and shipped to southeast Africa, and communicate with relief workers in Mozambique.
Running Grains for Hope is a lesson in real-life skills. In math class, students calculate the vitamin content in rice and compare it to recommended daily allowances. Student Michael Newth, Grains for Hope’s computer guru, has dramatically increased his computer science skills. “I had basic knowledge, but I had never applied it to anything,” he says.
Mrs. Spangler is thrilled to give the students in this town of 2,500 the chance to develop business skills and extend a “hand of friendship” to people in need. “I keep telling them, ‘You can do it,’ ” she says. “And they can.”