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May/June 2002 Issue
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Twenty-first century children face two major plagues: illiteracy and hunger. One in five American children (approximately 15 million) live at or below the poverty line. Children who are undernourished have trouble concentrating and bonding with other children and are more likely to suffer illnesses that force them to be absent from school. They consistently perform poorly on standardized tests. Poor performance early in school is a major risk factor for dropping out of school in later years. Project Graduation ... Feed a Body, Feed A Mind, a new initiative of Phi Theta Kappa, hopes to help alleviate these plagues. Project Graduation encourages graduating students and their invited guests to bring children’s books and non-perishable food items to their commencement ceremonies. As student leaders within their colleges and communities, Phi Theta Kappa members are asked to be at the helm of this new initiative. “The celebration of commencement represents the beginning not the end; therefore, bringing a book to feed a mind or food to feed a body is a tribute to graduates starting their new life in our community,” said advisor Robert Saldarini, Bergen Community College in Paramus, New Jersey. “Our chapter decided to become involved with Project Graduation for a number of reasons,” said Lisa Barnes, chapter advisor at Delaware County Community College in Media, Pennsylvania. “First, it is a simple way for the joy of our graduates and their families to be shared through generous contributions to others in the community. Second, it provides a necessary platform for our other service projects, such as our community reading days where the elementary school students attending these events each leave with the gift of a children’s book. Most importantly, the food and supplies we collect from Project Graduation are used in the summer, when food banks are often in crisis, and at other times throughout the year so that our chapter can easily meet the needs in the communities around us as they arise,” added Barnes. Phi Theta Kappa members Pam Cooper and Valerie Cunningham at Broome Community College in Binghamton, New York, contacted CHOW, a local food distribution program which feeds the hungry, regarding Project Graduation. They met with CHOW representatives, toured the facility and saw first-hand the drastically low food supply. “Our chapter has set a modest goal of collecting 1,000 books and 1,000 cans, and we are confident that the several thousand attendees at the May graduation will help us meet our goal !” said Cooper and Cunningham. For more information on Project Graduation, visit www.projectgraduation.org or email project.graduation@ptk.org.
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