WHAT IS HAWTHORNE DOING?
This year for GivingTuesday, the students of Hawthorne’s room 212 Kindergarten class have been thinking a lot about community – discussing what community is, how we know that we are an important part of a community, and what we can do to make people who live in our neighborhood feel important to us. At this very young age, the children were able to identify that showing kindness and sharing food are key to helping people in their community meet their basic needs. While contemplating how to empower the children at this age to help create change in their community, something happened. The independent grocery store, Fiesta Farms, showed the children that they were important people in their community. They showed their kindness by donating 30 pumpkins for the children to use for Halloween. And there it began.
The children of Room 212 are using this gift to spread kindness. Instead of tossing the pumpkins after Halloween, they decided to use them to cook food for people in their community. The school’s teacher, Lidya Rosenbaum, contacted Sistering, a local charitable organization that helps support socially isolated women and trans people in Toronto who are homeless or precariously housed. Sistering is located around the corner from the school and feeds up to 180 people a day. They agreed to accept the donation of cooked goods.
The children hand wrote cards and delivered them to each class asking to have their pumpkin the day after Halloween. That was followed by days of cleaning and cutting up jack-o-lanterns getting ready to reuse the pumpkins for good. The children started counting. How many people can one pumpkin feed? They rallied other children in the school and parents to help. Partnering with GivingTuesday Canada, who are providing a grant to support the project, these young do-gooders will lead an epic giveback on the morning of November 28th, baking enough Jack-o-lantern Bread and Jack-o-lantern Soup to feed an estimated 180 people and proving that everyone has the power to make change in their communities and that everyone has something to give.
WHAT IS GIVINGTUESDAY?
GivingTuesday is a global movement unleashing the power of people and organizations to transform their communities and the world. Whether it’s making someone smile, helping a stranger, or giving to those who need our help, every act of generosity counts, and everyone has something to give. www.givingtuesday.ca
WHAT IS #GIVINGTUESDAY SPARK?
Led by and for young people, GivingTuesdaySpark has been cultivated thanks to the vision of young changemakers and is all about lifting the voices of young people and encouraging them to take action around the causes they care about most. https://www.givingtuesday.ca/givingtuesday-spark
SOURCE TDSB
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