On Nov. 5, a group of parents, Family, Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA) members and younger siblings and other volunteers at the Waverly Middle School packed 125 meals, Asian noodles and chicken, for United Way’s Warm Wishes Coat Drive on Nov. 6.
Conducting the meal preparing and packing was Waverly Middle School Family & Consumer Science Teacher Kristie Kuhse.
Her eighth-grade classes have been learning about food insecurity through partnering with the Kids Feeding Kids program. Kuhse currently serves as a fellow of the program and integrated it into her classes this year.
FCCLA members Ella Juhl and Dominic Ellison of seventh grade were among those students packing the meals. They both said that it “feels good helping the community,” with Dominic adding that he likes to cook.
Everette Johnson of eighth grade joked about why he wanted to help prepare meals: “I thought it would be better than doing chores,” before saying, “It feels good to help people.”
His classmate, Landry Callahan, agreed saying, “It’s fun to package the meals.”
“My capstone project with Kids Feeding Kids is to modify the lessons and food preparation to fit middle school students. Everything is from scratch and nutritional,” Kuhse said.
The recipe was created by a chef of the Kids Feeding Kids program from Kansas City. She came to the Waverly Middle School for two days to observe the food insecurity lessons and help FCCLA members and students be prepared for the food preparation.
The preparations included julienne cutting bell peppers, cutting green onions, making the Asian sauce and learning how to pick rotisserie chicken off the bones.
For a part of the program, the middle schoolers went through a poverty simulation, where each person was given a profile with different incomes and life situations and “shopped” at different stations, according to their profile.
The different shopping stations included a grocery store and a convenience store, with each student using SNAP benefits to shop. They had a total of 15 minutes to shop, and afterwards, they talked about the realities of food insecurity and how it affects people in Iowa and beyond.
Kristie Kuhse said that the students’ response to the program has been “amazing.”
“Kids Feeding Kids aligns well with FCS (Family and Consumer Sciences) at Waverly-Shell Rock Middle School,” Kuhse explained. “I strive to engage students in using their time and talents to help others in the community.”
Most of the meal was prepped by the eighth grade FCS students. Kuhse said that the eighth graders were “really disappointed they couldn’t help more.”
So, they did, she explained, “They worked so efficiently that not all of the students were involved as much in the meal prep as they wanted. I discussed it with the FCCLA members and students and decided that we could do another 125 meals to give to the United Way.”