KIDS CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE (KIDS), an educational program for middle and high school students, focuses on the root causes of hunger and poverty, the people most affected, solutions, and how students can help. The major goal is to stimulate the students to take some definite follow-up actions as they begin to realize that one person can make a difference.

There are three major components of the KIDS program:

1. The innovative teacher guide, "Finding Solutions to Hunger: Kids Can Make A Difference;"
2. a quarterly newsletter; and
3. the KIDS website.

The teacher guide, "Finding Solutions to Hunger: Kids Can Make A Difference," has been used in middle and high schools, after school programs, religious schools, distance learning programs, home schools, and local food banks. It features uplifting, engaging, interactive and challenging lessons on the causes of and solutions to domestic and international hunger. It examines contemporary development projects, the role of the media, famine vs. chronic hunger, the working poor, and more, as well as valuable ideas for how young people can make a difference in their communities and in the world around them. In the hands of a creative teacher, the guide is adaptable to a range of ages. The guide can be ordered directly from KIDS and costs $22 plus $4 shipping.

Supporting classroom work is a KIDS newsletter that highlights current hunger issues and student initiatives. The newsletter features articles written by students, teachers, and others concerned with finding solutions to hunger and poverty. It is distributed to over 2500 schools, after school programs, religious schools and organizations, food banks/pantries, etc. For a free one-year subscription, please contact KIDS

In March 1998, Education World TM voted the KIDS website one of the 20 best educational sites on the World Wide Web. The site features information about the teacher guide (including a sample lesson), newsletters, hot topics, hunger facts, "Kids Speak," and other subjects of interest to students and teachers.

Students at the Caedmon School in New York City participated in a "Hunger Banquet." According to Mauve D'Arcy, a student, "The Hunger Banquet was really powerful and helped my class to understand what it's like to be really hungry." Her teacher, Jane Darby, said, "It's easy to become numb to the problems of poverty. City kids are witnesses to hunger every day... This exercise helps them to realize the injustice of it, and also gets them motivated to take some action." Fifth- and sixth-grade students in Maine conducted a Hunger Fair to educate fellow students, and teachers, one student remarked, "I thought the Hunger Fair was a great idea. It gave kids knowledge and that is important because kids are the future. If we influenced just one person, then we did our job." Another student remarked, "I thought the people weren't going to believe the facts I told them about hunger. They would stand there and say, 'Wow, I can't believe that!’"

The Maine Children's Alliance presented the 1996 Giraffe Award to KIDS. This award is given to those individuals and/or groups who stick their necks out for children. In May 1999, Mayor Evelyn Sirrell of Portsmouth, NH issued a proclamation commending the KIDS educational program. Her proclamation "encouraged schools and communities all over the state of New Hampshire to offer this program to their young people to show them that they can make a difference for the better in the larger world."

We developed the KIDS program for World Hunger Year (WHY). We are former WHY board members and members of South Church in Portsmouth, NH. For further information on the program contact KIDS at: P.O. Box 54, Kittery Point, ME 03905
Tel: (207) 439-9588, Fax: (207) 439-4917
email: kids@kids.maine.org, www.kids.maine.org