‘Hunger Games’ Put Food on Students’ Tables

How do you get kids excited about a holiday food drive to help feed less fortunate families?

That’s the question the organizers of Gulf Middle School’s ABC Food Drive faced down as the holiday season approached. Their solution: piggyback on a popular book and movie series that already has kids excited.

Gulf’s own version of “The Hunger Games” kicked off in November. Throughout the drive, teams at the school competed to earn “Tributes,” which are competitors. The selected Tributes now get to compete in the school’s own version of the games, which take place today, Dec. 21 from 1 to 2 p.m.

The fictional series takes place in the post-apocalyptic country of Panem where power is held in the “Capitol.” The nation’s districts are forced to compete annually in the Hunger Games in order to earn rations to feed their people. While the games in the book are brutal and fought to the death, Gulf’s version is much more benevolent.

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To earn Tributes, Gulf students had to bring in specific food items for the school’s Thanksgiving food drive, explained Marilyn Shafer, Gulf’s media specialist.

“Due to the popularity of the book(s) and movie, two of our ABC (Achieve Believe Care) staff members came up with the idea to link it to our annual food drive for our Thanksgiving food baskets,” Shafer said. “A little competition tends to bring in more food, which it did.”

Shafer said the drive, which lasted for two weeks prior to Thanksgiving, netted enough food to help the school create 62 baskets for students’ families who are less fortunate. The baskets included turkeys, which were purchased from the school’s ABC funds, vegetables, potatoes, stuffing, desserts and other traditional Thanksgiving fare.

Teams earned “Tributes” based on the amount of food collected.

Much like the popular series, the final Tributes will compete in a showdown of cunning and skill. Rather than earn food rations for their villages, however, these students will earn cookies for their teams, Shafer said.

The designated Tributes will compete today in such games as spear throwing, gathering edible berries (mistakes result in death), a relay race with trivia questions and a tug ‘o war.

Five survivors of the games will partake in a showdown archery competition “to the death.” From that leg of the competition, an ultimate victor will be crowned. The winner will earn extra rations – cookies.

The school’s ABC program benefits Gulf families that are in need.

How does your child’s school motivate students to get involved in community service projects?