World Hunger Awareness Week at SJC

On March 3-7, 2008 we observed World Hunger Awareness Week and World Hunger Awareness Day as we continued our Lenten journey during the Fourth Week of Lent. We kicked off the week at Morning Assembly. Our teachers and students made bracelets out of shoelaces that were given to us last year by Catholic Charities (with the message “Tying Our Community Together”). We blessed and distributed these bracelets at Monday’s Morning Assembly. All of us at school wore these bracelets and used them as constant reminders to pray for children throughout the world who live with hunger every day.

On Friday, March 7, 2008, we observed World Hunger Awareness Day. Through this small gesture of fasting, almsgiving, and prayer, we stood in solidarity with people who constantly live with hunger. We started the morning at First Friday Mass and we shared the goals of our World Hunger Day with the parishioners. We reminded the students to pray for those who may not know where their next meal is coming for every time the students were hungry. Students in Grades K-2 received a simple snack from their teachers, while the students in Grades 3-8 did not eat recess snacks. The teachers and staff also refrained from eating recess snacks and shared rice and beans with their classes or each other in the teacher lunchroom. The school provided a lunch of rice, beans, and water to all students and encouraged students to donate their usual hot lunch expense to Operation Rice Bowl. At 12:00 PM, the lunch was distributed to the classrooms by the Student Council. The lunch was blessed in each classroom by the classroom teacher and was shared in an atmosphere of prayer and reverence. Students waited for all to be served before they started eating and students and teachers found fair ways to dole out seconds with the extra food.

We would like to thank the Pasta Market for making the rice and beans for the school and the Student Council for distributing the rice, beans, water, serving utensils, cups, and napkins to the classroom.