COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Micki Zartman Scarlet and Gray Ag Day, an educational awareness day for central Ohio elementary students hosted by Ohio State University's College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences, is teaming up with the Mid-Ohio Foodbank to help hungry families and inspire future hunger heroes. During the April 27 event, nearly 650 visiting fourth- and fifth-grade students will be packaging food to make “Kid-Packs,” which will be donated to Mid-Ohio Foodbank for distribution.
The packs include healthy snacks, personal care items, foods to make a meal, and beverages. Students will also have time to personalize and decorate the bags for all of these items. After the event concludes, the packs will be sent to children and families in need.
The goal for this service-based learning opportunity is to inspire students to create their own hunger-fighting campaigns in their respective communities, said Dustin Homan, Scarlet and Gray Ag Day committee member. Students need to not only internalize the reality of local and global hunger, which many of them have never experienced, but to also take a proactive role in being part of the solution, he said.
Mid-Ohio Foodbank representatives will be on site that day to assist in packaging the items. They will also be working with Scarlet and Gray Ag Day committee members to educate the students about volunteering and how the food will be distributed to those in need.
Many hands will help run the day’s Kid-Pack session, which will be conducted by 60 Ohio State student volunteers from two organizations, Collegiate Young Farmers and Campus Crusade.
Scarlet and Gray Ag Day also received donations for the food drive, including $2,000 from the Ohio Farm Bureau Foundation and $250 from Campus Crusade. Additional food donations and monetary support have come from Glory Foods, Kroger, Walmart, Sam’s Club, Target, The Andersons Inc. and Dublin Baptist Church. Furthermore, Collegiate Young Farmers conducted a food drive on the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences campus during the month of April and collected 1,472 food items for the Kid-Packs. The Kid-Packs would not be possible without the assistance of these businesses and organizations, Homan said.
For more information about Scarlet and Gray Ag Day and the Kid-Pack service project taking place on April 27, please contact Mid-Ohio representative Colin Baumgartner at cbaumgartner@midohiofoodbank.org or 614-317-9412 or Scarlet and Gray Ag Day committee member Dustin Homan at homan.64@osu.edu or 937-538-1273.
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