WILMINGTON - Few of us can say that we have spent half of our lives working on an annual food drive to support a local food pantry that assists families that might otherwise not have enough to eat. However, little Joshua White, who will soon turn four years old, is the exception to that statement. He enjoys collecting food for the Wilmington Food Pantry, and this is his second annual Halloween for Hunger food drive.
“I like to help hungry people,” said Joshua. Is it fun? “Yeah,” he replied happily.
Joshua and his mother, Amy White, are working on a variation of an annual campaign that was started by Joshua’s uncle, Dr. Jonathan White, a Doctor of Sociology and a professor at Bridgewater State when his community service oriented travels aren’t taking him around the world.
The Halloween for Hunger campaign addresses poverty on a local level by having children trick or treating for non-perishable food items on Halloween night. Joshua and his mom do a modified version of this and have put donation boxes at Joshua’s pre-school, The Wonder Years Learning Center, and also at Quick Chiropractic and Silver Cloud. After Halloween they will collect the goods and Joshua will deliver them to the Wilmington Food Pantry.
Karen Wurst, Director of The Wonder Years Learning Center explained that the school is a great place to implement things of this nature because “we’re very community-minded here and these two organizations (Free The Children and Halloween for Hunger) embody everything that we believe in here.
Dr. Leslie Quick, of Quick Chiropractic and Assoc. in Wilmington, encourages residents to come by and leave non-perishable goods in the box outside of her office. “The cans in there are going for a great local charity (Wilmington Food Pantry) that is near and dear to our hearts,” said Dr. Quick.
The third drop off location is the Silver Cloud on Main Street near Market Basket. Owner George Moutsoulis is hopeful that if people see that others are putting food in the box that is outside of his store they may decide to contribute too. We’re “trying to fill this box up,” he said.
Halloween for Hunger is an annual campaign whose goal is to help alleviate hunger while raising awareness of global poverty. Adopted by the Free The Children organization in October of 2000, the campaign pushes people to think globally but act locally.
Amy White stated, “It has to start in our community to make a global difference. It has to start now.” She continues, “There are so many people who fear that there is so much that needs to be done out there that they are paralyzed by it and do nothing.”
White, who was a Special Education teacher for 14 years before leaving to be at home with Joshua, firmly believes that each individual can make a difference. She reminds us of the old story about the child who was throwing starfish back into the ocean after finding hundreds of them washed up on the beach following a storm. An adult came along and questioned, “Why bother? There are so many and you’ll never save them all. It won’t make a difference.” But the child felt quite differently and replied… “It made a difference to that one” and threw another one back into the ocean.
White hopes that the kinds of lessons that Joshua is learning now about making a difference in the world will carry him through his lifetime. She hopes that he will follow in his uncle’s footsteps in the battle to make the world better place by eliminating hunger and poverty and the educating children of the world.
Poverty exists all around us. Halloween for Hunger and Free The Children believe that poverty and hunger are universal challenges that need to be met head-on by youth, community groups and governments alike.Free The Children is the world’s largest network of children helping children through education. Through their unique youth-driven approach, more than one million children have been involved in helping others through programs in more than 45 countries.
Founded by international child rights activist Craig Kielburger, Free the Children has established a track record of success with 3 nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize and partnerships with the United Nations and Oprah’s Angel Network.
From their website, http://www.freethechildren.org/, “The primary goal of the organization is to not only free children from poverty and exploitation, but also to free young people from the notion that they are powerless to affect positive change in the world and to improve the lives of their peers. More information about Halloween for Hunger can also be found on the Free The Children website.
Copyright 2007 CBLEGVOLD. All rights reserved.
