Chesapeake Schools have embraced Change Our World in a Big Way!

Chesapeake Schools have embraced the Change Our World Promotion big time! I had the pleasure to be present for 2 days there this week at 2 different schools. I wanted to submit a brief write up on how those two days went and how each school designed their own fund raisings in a unique way.

Deep Creek HS - Day 1

Donna Lamb, the foodservice manager there, embraces fund raising as a common thing in her cafeteria year round. When we approached her about showcasing her school as a GCNF contributor, she openly welcomed it.

She, coincidentally enough, had already started the week before collecting money for the local food bank because she had seen on the news that the Chesapeake area food bank was low on funds. She decided to do the fundraisers side-by-side and split the proceeds between the two organizations.

With the materials sent to her for the Change Our World event, she transformed her cafeteria into a fundraising haven. It was beautifully decorated with displays everywhere inviting the students to contribute to the causes. The first day alone, she raised nearly $100 and plans to raise funds till the end of May. Her goal is $500.

Crestwood Intermediate - Day 2

Renee Swank, designed her own unique, interactive spin on the promo. She designed different colored coins for each grade level. A student can earn "coins" by the amount they donate for their grade as well as their classroom. She asks each student to write his or her name and homeroom on each colored coin. She then writes how many "coins" on each one they donated. She sits at a table throughout lunch and allocated the coins with tape and the kids ran over to a map on the wall and put up their coins on the map. At the end of the day, she adds up all the coins by grade and homeroom and notes it. At the end of the month, she will announce a winning homeroom for each grade and we are going to do a pizza and ice cream party for each of them. The coins earned are as follows:

$.01-.25 — 1 coin
$.26-.50 — 2 coin
$.51-.75 — 3 coin
$.76-1.00 — 4 coin

Renee started this fundraiser last week and has already surpassed her goal of $250. While spending the day, she introduced me to children who had exceptional stories to share.

One 3rd grader found change totaling $1.87 solely by cleaning the floor of her Mom and Dad's cars. Another 3rd grader got money from her own savings and by lobbying her grandmother and mother. A 4th grader went around to her entire family at home and collected money from them. A 5th grader has used his weekly allowance to donate and will do so until the event ends.

Thank you to all for your support and contribution.

VINNY GIACINTO
Regional Sales Manager - School Foodservice Division Schwan's Food Service, Inc.

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Beavercreek, Ohio - City Schools' Change our World Report Card

The milk bottles have been emptied and the money has all been counted. Today a check has was sent to the Global Child Nutrition Foundation in the amount of $2239.53 for the Change our World campaign. That amount, combined with additional monies that were deposited in the district's name from purchases of Schwan's pizza and J&J pretzels should bring us just about to the goal of $2500. Our students were very generous and the staff encouraged a little friendly competition to keep them giving during the entire month of April!

Sue Pope and Natasha Nuttbrock's hard work earned their students a pizza party at Ferguson. Mrs. Kunk's students at Shaw will also get a pizza party since they had the largest donation of any elementary class. In the Lunchlady competition, we had two milk bottles turned in with over $100 in change. They were from Sharon Millsap, Beavercreek High School manager, and Margarita Greenleaf, Fairbrook Elementary School manager. Additional thanks go out to Angie Creech for the great bulletin board and photos from the fundraising efforts of her business law classes! Maddie Pfirrman, a third grade student at Main Elementary, touched us all by donating nearly $50 of her saved allowance money.

Thanks to Reiter Dairy for donating the milk bottles, and to Victoria Maxwell for putting the Change our World labels on them. And thanks to each and every one of you who made a donation. Even if it was just a little change, it has helped to change our world by proving the foundation for a school feeding program in a country where there is no such program.

Thanks again, JoAnne Robinett, Supervisor, Student Nutrition

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Montgomery Intermediate Goes Global on Earth Day

Montgomery Intermediate School in Montgomery, Texas, took part in the "Change Our World" Campaign to raise student awareness about global child hunger and encourage global citizenship the week of April 21, 2008.

This campaign is a joint effort of the School Nutrition Association and the Global Child Nutrition Foundation (GCNF). Using Earth Day, April 22, as ingathering day, each student was asked to contribute at least a quarter to this effort. Montgomery Intermediate ended up raising $258.25 to forward on to GCNF.

"This is the first time we have participated in a fundraising effort for a cause with our students," stated Carolyn Watson, Director of Child Nutrition. "I appreciate Principal Jada Mullins helping us create student awareness of this growing problem. Their excitement to give to other children across the globe was inspiring."

Schwan Food Service, Inc. also donated funds to this cause in the name of Montgomery ISD based on the purchase of featured new products.

"We were able to introduce our students to two new pizza products with whole grain crust and discover student acceptability of this product and give to global hunger at the same time. What a win-win," said Ms. Watson.

The U.S. Congress has recognized April as Global Child Nutrition Month. Nearly 300 million of the world's children are caught in the debilitating cycle of poverty and hunger. The Global Child Nutrition Foundation wants to end child hunger by providing expertise and a proven track record in creating and sustaining school feeding programs in underdeveloped countries.

Tina Bozarth, cafeteria manager at Montgomery Intermediate stated, "It was energizing to see the most wonderful students giving from their hearts."

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MSD of Wayne Township, Indiana Makes Big Change

We completed our Change Our World campaign promotion in early April with results far exceeding expectations! We set an initial goal of $2500.00 and actually raised $3868.53!

Each manager set up their own fund raising program, and it was fun to see what they planned. We had a school that displayed the flags of 40 different countries and played music each Friday as the money was collected at the register. At one of our elementary schools, a student donated the $20.00 she had received for good grades on her report card. Her comment: "someone needs this money more than I do."

- Sara Gasiorowski

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SNA Cincinnati Chapter Contribute to Campaign

The Cincinnati Chapter (Chapter 31) of the School Nutrition Association of Ohio monthly meeting was all about Global Hunger Awareness when they met at Sycamore Schools on April 14, 2008.

The featured speaker was Nick Clooney, a renowned journalist in the Cincinnati area who is the father of actor, George Clooney and brother of the late singer, Rosemary Clooney.

Nick Clooney and his son George remain very close. The pair visited the troubled region of Darfur in Sudan and worked to get the crisis noticed by those in power. They labeled the situation the "first genocide of the 21st century." Mr. Clooney shared some of what he learned during the trip with the group.

In relation to the Darfur crisis, Nick Clooney said "I have been a reported for 50 years. Maybe three or four stories in your lifetime are life-changing and you go in as a reporter and come out as an advocate. You don’t usually like to do that but this time I did. So yes, it was life-changing." He did not ask people to donate money to the cause, but instead wanted people to know about the urgent action that is needed for the cause. He asked the people to contact their congress people, senators and media to continue to let more people know about what is going on in Dafur and create action.

Continuing with the theme of giving back, the group brought change to donate as part of the National "Change our World" campaign and played Bingo for 25 cents per card. Schwan’s Food Service provided the game and prizes. All total, the group raised $400.75 that will be donated to The Global Child Nutrition Association on behalf of the chapter. GCNF works to help nations build and sustain feeding programs.

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Warren Consolidated Schools Kick Off Campaign

Thursday, April 10, 2008, Warren Consolidated Schools in the Detroit area kicked off their Change Our World campaign.

This was just the start of the fund raising campaign at their schools. I think it was successful and fun! The parents that came for conferences were more than willing to donate with encouragement of the super sales people from the leadership team and Christine Rottschafer from Michael's & Associates.

This week they are planning on doing commercials that will be run in all of the schools. Other buildings will also be running additional campaigns that will make a difference in the fight against child hunger.

Great job!!!

Michelle Bott, SNS
Regional Sales Manager
Schwan's Food Service

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Change Can Be A Great Thing

Change can be a great thing. At Billy Earl Dade Middle Learning Center in Dallas, Texas, we found that with the right reason, change can happen quickly and positively. We were very excited to have the Dallas Independent School District selected to host a kick-off event for the Change Our World campaign. We decided to have the event at Billy E. Dade Middle Learning Center, a middle school with about 450 students in grades sixth through eighth. We were ecstatic to make our donation of $310.25, which we know will help make a real difference.

We started the Change Our World event on Thursday, February 28, 2008, by showing the "Change Our World" digital video during lunch period. I was amazed that instead of talking louder and drowning out the video, which often happens when large groups of students are brought together, the students not only watched it, but were drawn into it. This is when I knew our Change Our World event was going to be a success.

At Billy E. Dade Middle Learning Center the students wear uniforms, so our plan on Friday was to have a "Jeans Day" where students, teachers and administrators could wear jeans for a donation to the Global Child Nutrition Foundation.

The people who donated to the foundation also got their names placed on a paper donation "coin" which was hung on the wall. The posters, danglers and the donation coins are still hanging up in our school, reminding the students how they were able to make a difference.

It really touched me that we were able to raise the money we did. Many of the students who attend Billy E. Dade do not have a lot of extra to give, but they saw that the GCNF is a good cause. I think they were able to relate with the children the GCNF is helping. For some students, the meal they receive at school is their only real meal for the day. That is why the GCNF and the "Change Our World" digital video really touched home.

We couldn't have accomplished what we did without the support of David Welch, the principal at Billy E. Dade Middle Learning Center. He gave us the opportunity to make a difference in our world.

At Billy E. Dade we hope others will see our $310.25 donation and realize it doesn't matter how big your school is or how large your donation is. Each donation brings the GCNF a step closer to achieving its goals.

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