College students in Dr. Barb Witteman’s integrative Inquiry Class, “Hungry!,” teamed up with fourth-graders from Fargo’s Washington Elementary. They researched hunger, primarily in the Fargo-Moorhead area, but they also looked at hunger issues across the United States.
The classes first came together during the first-year students’ Hands for Change community service project in August. The first-year students picked up the fourth-graders at Washington and went together to the Emergency Food Pantry in Fargo to volunteer. They have been going to Washington Elementary to work with and teach them ever since.
In November, the fourth-graders ventured to Concordia where the two groups presented their information on hunger through tabletop displays they had created.
Carson, a fourth-grader, and his college mentor, Taiwo Rufai ’20, looked at what happens to students’ learning when they are hungry.
“When you are hungry it affects your brain so you want to sleep,” Carson says. “When you sleep you aren’t paying attention so you get bad grades.”
Other research included how elderly are affected by hunger, food waste, changes in agricultural processes in the United States and simple cookbook options.
“We turned a word cookbook into a picture cookbook,” Adyson, a fourth-grader, says. “It could be used for people who don’t speak our language.”
In addition to the presentations, some children were labeling packages of dry, edible beans that were donated by Bryan Boll ’96. The beans had been packaged during a day of service-learning activities designed by another class of Witteman's, elementary methods. The beans will be distributed through the Emergency Food Pantry. Others were creating birthday cards to put in birthday bags that included a cake mix and frosting for food-insecure families to give to their children so they can celebrate their birthdays.
“Hunger is such an important topic that I’ve been talking about for years,” Witteman says. “Maybe 9- and 10-year-olds can explain hunger so people will really understand it.”
Fourth-grade teacher Melissa Krueger was glad to have the opportunity to partner on the project.
“There was a lot of problem-solving and creativity that went into putting everything together for their display boards,” Krueger says. “As kids grow older, they need to be aware of others in their community and how they can help each other.”
The lesson was working because, in addition to identifying problems, each display made suggestions of what could be done to make our community more food secure.
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