The Affero Blog

Did You Know?

By Lucas Parry in News

So what does it all mean? What does it mean for us as a community? What can we do NOW? Let the discussion begin…

Summer Hunger

By Steven McLaughlin in Articles,News

I’m writing this as the temperature is getting well into the lower 80’s and droves of people are filing through our town with their towels and coolers on their way to the beach. The ice cream truck has become more of a mobile hangout than occasional treat in recent months. The smell of burgers and dogs cooking on the grill intertwines with the odors of sunscreen and sweat as they waft in through our rarely cracked windows. All of this can mean only one thing; summer is close at hand.

For some, summer is more about tradition and ritual than it is an actual calendar event, I know for myself it is. The cookouts, the fireworks, the small town festivals celebrating some random claim to fame (The town next to mine growing up had an Onion Festival every year, many of us still have yet to figure out what the correlation between the onion and that town ever was.)

As I’m winding down my first year teaching I have numerous friends asking me what I’m planning on doing with my time off over the summer. My response is usually an icy glare that is cold enough to commit to not needing the A/C for the next several days. This is due to the fact that my school is year round, and while we do get several vacations throughout the year, for the most part we teach through the summer.

While I am envious of my friends that get a couple months off in a row for summer vacation, there is a student population that I find myself not envying throughout the summer. I recently came upon this article which explains in depth the food shortage that a group of students in America face throughout the summer. To briefly summarize the article, it basically points out that throughout the school year; many families in lower income neighborhoods come to depend on federally subsidized lunches that the children get at school to give their children a substantial meal.

In 2010 alone 20.5 million students depended on these lunches throughout the day, up from 19.4 million in 2009. Estimates suggest that over the summer months when school is out, around 16 million of these kids aren’t going to be able to receive lunches. Reasons for this seem to extend beyond my comprehension; everything from shortages at food pantries throughout the country due to the sour economy to bureaucratic red tape mandating when and where food can be given to children seems to be mucking up kids chances at a decent meal.

I don’t think I have ever in my life thought about school lunches being a significant source of nutrition. From all the time I have spent working in, volunteering at or attending public schools, all I have ever heard is how awful the food is. How messed up is it that I’ve spent years only hearing about how terrible food is, and there are kids that have stomachs that are aching for this food?

I heard a friend teach one time on how hunger is not an issue that stems from a downturned economy, but that stems from people not willing to reach out and help their neighbors in need.

I hope that this summer we can figure out how to feed more students than ever before, whether it’s donating food to a local pantry or finding out what it takes to volunteer at a lunch program in a nearby city, I know that I don’t want this to just be another few warm months that I drift through carefree and unaware of my hungry neighbors’ struggles.

Shoes and Worms?

By Lucas Parry in News

Early last year I was in Kenya visiting schools in remote regions of the countryside, its one of my favorite things to do when Im in Africa. I love the sound of kids laughing and watching kids point at the “muzungu with the guitar on his back”, as I visit and teach the kids songs from my land ‘downunder’. Great times! But, as I was singing in this little village school, with no windows or chalkboard, dancing with these happy kids, the reality sunk in that these school kids had no shoes! None of them.

I later learned that because these kids had no shoes, the CDC and other Non-Government Organizations had to come through every 6 months with worm medicine to de-worm the kids (if the family had money), did you know?

• 400 million children are infected or at risk of being infected with “soil-transmitted helminths” – worms in the soil that can enter the body through the soles of bare feet.
• An additional 200 million people worldwide (adults and children) are infected with schistosomiasis, which comes from another type of worm – shoes can play a big prevention role with “schisto”, too.
• If a child has enough worms in her body, they will stunt her physical growth, make her more susceptible to other infections, and even cause permanent cognitive damage – that’s a lower IQ, just because of worms!
• Children with worms also suffer from lower school attendance.

So today’s challenge is to do something about this. I have listed 3 things you can do to help combat this epic problem. Lets commit to doing one of these this week and you just might save the life of a child.

1) Visit www.soles4souls.org and donate a pair of your shoes – easy!

2) Go buy a pair of shoes from Toms Shoes. For every pair bought, Toms gives a pair away to children in need around the world.

3) Visit www.donateyouroldshoes.org – these guys will take your old shoes and make great use of them.