Students march to end hunger
Photos by Alphonso Abbott Jr.- Participants in the Kimberly Park Freedom School march through the streets of Winston-Salem to shine a light on childhood hunger on Wednesday, July 19.
Participants at local Freedom Schools join National Day of Social Action
Every day in North Carolina more than 600,000 children go without eating a proper meal. Last week children across the community marched through the streets of city to shine a light on the issue, and call for an end to all childhood hunger in the area.
According to the Children’s Defense Fund, a private nonprofit that works to provide equitable opportunities for all students, 618,000 children go hungry every day in our community. On Wednesday, July 19, children who participate in the Freedom School program offered at Kimberley Park Elementary School carried empty plates and led administrators, teachers, parents and other community members to Samaritan Ministries, a local soup kitchen and homeless shelter that feeds hundreds daily.
Along the way, the group of more than 75 children, and adults bellowed several chants to let everyone know about the growing issue in our community. One person even stopped to make a cash donation to the cause. While speaking to students outside Samaritan Ministries on Northwest Boulevard, Kimberly Park Principal Dr. Amber Baker told the students they were fighting to help children just like them.
“For North Carolina to be as rich as it is, we should not have this many children going without meals,” Baker said.
Kimberly Park Freedom School coordinator Rashawn Meekins said the purpose of the march, and the programs’ National Day of Social Action is to get the community involved. She said, “We need to get and let our elected officials know that we need programs that provide for children in need,” she said.
Students who attend the Freedom School program offered on the campus of Wake Forest University, and the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Winston-Salem also participated in the National Day of Social Action and the march to end hunger.
Freedom School is a literacy-rich summer and after-school program offered across the county by the Children’s Defense Fund. The program is developed to serve children in communities where quality academic enrichment programming is rare, cost-prohibitive or non-existent.
