Mounds View students fighting hunger with their own two hands

Students in the Mounds View district hope to do their part to end world hunger at a special event Monday. Their tools: Clay and soup.

At the Empty Bowls event at Irondale High School, students will sell soup and bread made by family and consumer science students from three schools. Others will sell student-built, hand-glazed bowls that are meant to serve as a reminder of the people all over the world who are dying from starvation and malnutrition.

Students will vote to decide which one of six organizations will get the proceeds from the fundraiser.

The Empty Bowls project started in 1990, when John Hartom and Lisa Blackburn organized the effort with a high school art class. Since then, the program has gone global, with events in at least nine countries, Hartom said. He estimates that schools, religious communities and service groups have raised tens of millions of dollars for the effort.

"Today the most overriding feeling continues to be one of amazement that this thing keeps going," Hartom said. "It's incredibly gratifying to know it continues to be a powerful tool for people to use."

The project came to Mounds View as a great opportunity for service learning, said youth programs director Jason Hedrix. Students will be preparing and serving the food; they've built and glazed the bowls, handled publicity and researched world hunger.

Melanie Keillor's class of fourth-graders is finishing a yearlong project on hunger, nutrition and world politics. They packaged meals at Feed My Starving Children in Brooklyn Park and studied the cost difference to feed a family in the United States compared to Ecuador, Chad, and other far-flung nations. They looked at the kinds of foods people eat and discussed the healthfulness and expense of an American diet compared to diets elsewhere.

They took their new knowledge to other classes in the school, to get other kids fired up about helping. And they'll share information at Monday's event, too.

"These kids don't realize they know so much," Keillor said. "The goal is, we're not just teaching this to our children. We're empowering them for 'What can we do about this?"

The students noted that they feel more powerful, even if their new knowledge makes them feel sad.

"I don't want anyone to think, 'I'm just a kid, what can I do?'" said Sami Britton, 10. "You can change the world if you want."

Gabi Johnson agreed.

"That was really cool because you don't have to wait till you're an adult to help," she said. "You can do it when you're a kid."

Maria Elena Baca • 612-673-4409