Over the last several months, 10 Maine middle schools, and nearly 700 Maine students, have worked to solve pressing issues in their communities and the world as part of the first annual Samantha Smith Challenge.
Participating students identified a concerning issue, researched it to the point where they could advocate for a solution, and then found ways to turn their advocacy research into action by talking to community leaders, writing OpEds, giving talks and making videos.
At Messalonskee Middle School in Oakland, teachers Kim Fish, Amanda Ripa and Linda Haskell oversaw 84 seventh and eighth-grade students who studied the issue of hunger. Below, you can see what they learned, how they worked with their community, and their ideas for solutions.
The Samantha Smith Challenge was named after the Maine middle school student who famously inspired a dialogue about peace between the USSR and the U.S. during the Cold War. It was created by Americans Who Tell the Truth and the Maine Association for Middle Level Education, with a goal to promote civic engagement.
The issue: Hunger
The question: How can we help prevent hunger in our school and community?
Facts learned that influenced students’ thinking:
— One out of five kids (16 million) struggle with hunger.
— Childhood hunger is linked to developmental, behavioral and academic problems.
Plan of action:
— Research an area dealing with hunger and nutrition.
— Create informational projects for school population: bulletin board in hall, posters, websites, podcasts.
— Build fairy houses on trail to inform the elementary students about issues around food.
— Run taste tests on healthy food choices for breakfast and snacks.
— Build a hoop house (greenhouse) and refresh community-raised beds.
— Plant seeds and grow seedlings to transplant into the raised beds.
— Harvest vegetables to donate to summer school lunch program, community food bank, and team lunch and snack shack.
— Apply for a larger greenhouse to increase harvest for the whole school.
Community partners and stakeholders:
— School lunch program: William D. Hamilton, nutrition director for RSU 18
— Farm to School Committee: Clair Heffernan, chair
— Community Raised Bed Coordinator: Tom Pullen
— Summer School Free Lunch Program
— The Maine Academy of Natural Sciences
— Bonnie Sammons, master gardener
Results:
— Fairy houses were built and placed on trail with informational signage.
— Students ran taste tests showing students enjoyed using fruits and vegetables.
— Many students read informational posters and bulletin boards.
— Students grew seedlings to be planted outside.
— A hoop house was put up and raised beds made/refreshed.
— Seeds planted.
Ongoing support needed:
— There is a need for students and community members to harvest, water and weed garden beds over the summer, a food service program to wash and prepare food for students, and grant money to buy supplies to continue this work next year and/or expand the garden.
Thoughts about this experience:
— “This unit has brought up conversations at home because it’s a project that is very personal to me.” – Julia Cooke
— “We wanted to get a hoop house and grow food because there are a lot of people in our community that don’t have enough food or at least healthy food they can eat due to the expense.” – Peyton Arbor
— “We realized a lot of people in our school have choices at lunch, but they don’t always like the choices left by third lunch. If we can grow food, then we can provide more choices on the salad bar with fresh food from our garden, then the kids might actually like it.” – Noah Cummings
