Swampscott Middle School Students Feed America

Every year, Swampscott Middle School teacher, Mr. Lewis, organizes a charity dinner, and allows his students to help out. This year however, it wasn't happening for various reasons. After hearing the news, three Swampscott Middle School sixth graders, Ryan Bookman, Niya Morgen, and Liam Herlihy, decided to start their own fundraiser. It benefitted the same cause as the annual dinner would have, Feeding America, which helps over 46 million people that are located in the U.S. by providing them with food.

Ryan, Niya, and Liam started by collecting volunteers. They recruited the students in Mr. Lewis' reading class. Mr. Lewis allowed the children to work during his class. That was because he believes that people learn more when they are interested in the topic, which was how to run a fundraiser for these kids. He also believes in teaching children to be charitable when they are young, so the current youngsters will have a higher chance of translating into thoughtful and caring adults.

The reading class volunteers agreed to help by filling out an application. The founders then sorted through the applications and decided who was fit for each job. The jobs included marketing, media, decorations, writing speeches, brainstorming, and delivering and collecting our mason jars (to and from the classrooms). After finding who was right for each job, Ryan, Niya, and Liam selected fields to lead. Ryan chose personal relations and marketing, Niya chose brainstorming and decoration, and Liam chose delivery/pickup and speech creation. These leaders taught lessons to and worked with their selected group of volunteers, which they did for over a week.

After the period of preparation, the class was ready to spread their idea to others. They did that by speaking on the announcements, delivering the mason jars to classrooms, and presenting their project to students.

The class then had to come up with a solution to a dilemma. They found that the middle school students couldn't relate to the cause and were not motivated to donate. Ryan, Niya, and Liam came up with a solution over FaceTime, which was to put the names of the donors on a giant poster located in the SMS main lobby, so the students can be recognized for their generous givings. After their idea was announced, donations started to flow rapidly.

The total amount of money collected from both online and offline was $2,015. Mr. Lewis got a corporate matching, which double their impact, so their gift to Feeding America shot up to $4,030. In other words, Ryan, Niya, and Liam's idea saved many lives across the globe, making their effort a huge success.

Donations are still being collected online. You can support these kids and the people going hungry in America by giving a kind gift of how ever much you can, by clicking the donate button at crowdrise.com/letsfighthunger. Donations close on July, 31, 2017.