Serving Up Lunches for Service Learning

Fifth grade students helped combat food insecurity in a recent service activity.

Teachers in the Intermediate School are always looking for ways to include more service learning in the student experience. Recently, 5th grade teachers collaborated with the Dean of Intermediate and Middle School Life Anthony Shaker to orchestrate an activity making bag lunches to benefit The Night Ministry.

Prior to the activity, Shaker visited each of the 5th grade classrooms to talk about the Night Ministry and its work. He spoke about the organization’s history with Middle School Community Service initiatives and how the organization helps those in need. 

In these classroom visits, Shaker also led a demonstration of the assembly-line style of work they would engage in the next day while making the lunches. Since that format can disconnect one from the final product, Shaker made an effort to center students’ focus on the clients and give them a sense of the impact their efforts could make in the lives of those less fortunate.

The cafeteria was abuzz with music and laughter the following day, as 5th grade students and their teachers joined their 12th grade Big Siblings to make meals. Working in assembly-line stations, students built and bagged turkey and cheese sandwiches and paired them with snacks and fruit to create 120 lunches. 

That same afternoon, Shaker provided them to the Night Ministry so they could deliver them on their “Outreach Bus,” which brings meals to places where they know unhoused people are sleeping. In classrooms the previous day, Shaker had shared that some food pantries give food only to people who come to the shelter, but some might not have access to transportation, so the delivery bus plays a vital role.

This experience gave students an opportunity to contribute to a good cause, learn about an important topic, connect to the service component of the school’s mission and excite them about the additional community service work that awaits in Middle and Upper School.

Thanks to all who combined efforts to get the job done.