With the theme of giving on many minds during the holiday season, students at Baxter Elementary got a lesson in giving back to their community by packing meals Thursday, Dec. 19, for The Outreach Program.
Formerly Kids Against Hunger-Brainerd Lakes Area, The Outreach Program packages meals to be distributed primarily to food shelves in the lakes area and within a 100 mile radius, while also sending about 10-20% of the meals packed overseas to developing countries and for disaster relief.
On Thursday, Baxter fourth graders packed 8,640 apple cinnamon oatmeal meals for The Outreach Program. The activity fit into the school’s second trimester theme of “building character,” one branch of this year’s buildingwide theme “Baxter under construction.”
Part of The Outreach Program’s goal, Executive Director Shawn Hansen said, is to get kids, like the students at Baxter Elementary, involved in charity work at a young age.
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“We know that if we take a child when they’re young and teach them about community service and volunteering, that as they become adults, it’s naturally ingrained in their culture,” Hansen said.
So students and teachers alike donned hair nets, aprons and gloves and eagerly scooped soy, oatmeal, dried apples and cinnamon flavor packets into plastic packages, sealed the bags and boxed them up to ship out to area food shelves.
“Our hope someday,” Hansen said, “is that we meet one of these kids on the street when they’re 25, and they come back and tell us all the different places they’ve given their time with all the great charities that are around the area.”
THERESA BOURKE may be reached at theresa.bourke@brainerddispatch.com or 218-855-5860. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/DispatchTheresa .
