At Parkway’s Carman Trails Elementary school, part of the kindergarten social studies curriculum is about needs versus wants. The students learn that food, air and love are needs; while toys and vacation are wants. In an effort to make this lesson real for the students, the kindergarten teachers led the students to organize a school canned food drive and also planned a field trip to the St. Louis Area Foodbank. The students made posters and announcements at the school to promote the food drive and they were able to donate 350 pounds of food which equates to 285 meals.
The students geared up to support feeding people by also volunteering at the foodbank’s repackaging center, where students were enlightened regarding the fact that one in eight people in the bi-state region are in need of assistance. Students worked at the repackaging center on an assembly line filling boxes with food to be distributed to area families, children and seniors. The students’ hard work provided over 10,000 meals for the hungry.