Refugee Students Want Fruits and Vegetables to Focus Learning
My students need fresh fruits and vegetables for snacks each day, not processed foods! I want to purchase apples, oranges, bananas, cucumbers, and carrots for them to eat.
Our school serves students in grades K-6 and provides rigorous academics to amazing motivated language learners in a safe learning environment. Our goal is to prepare our students for success in high school, college, and future careers. The students in our school are about 70% ELL and speak about 20 different languages.
The students in my New American classroom are English language learners who have been in the country for less than one year.
Not all students who are non-English speakers are selected for this setting. My students are refugees from several different countries. They had limited or very interrupted schooling in their own countries due to lack of resources and upheaval. This year, I have students from Congo, Kenya, Somalia, Uganda, Tanzania, El Salvador, and Rwanda. There are many different languages in my classroom and several different cultures. For these students, life in our city is very different from their lives before coming here. We strive to be at all times respectful and appreciative of each others' culture and strengths. We believe that we all have gifts to share and that with education we will have the power to do so.
My Project
My students are resilient, strong, intelligent, beautiful people. They very seldom complain, even when they could easily do so. Both the students and the families are driven for success. Most of the students in my class arrive at school by 7am, even though we don't begin our day until 8:15. They work hard all day and go to an extra 3 hours of tutoring after-school each day. However, by the time the students arrive at after-school tutoring, they are very hungry and struggle to focus.
My project is simple - feeding young minds with healthy foods so they can focus on the critical tasks of learning.
I am requesting groceries from Walmart, allowing me to purchase fresh fruits and vegetables that will be given to children before they start tutoring, so I can meet their basic need of food.
My refugee students already love fruits and vegetables. My students are always asking me for bananas, apples, strawberries, cucumbers, mangoes and more. Having healthy snacks like these will reinforce the students' love of healthy snack choices. Providing them with healthy snacks will encourage them to make better food choices than providing them with processed foods. When students have a stomach full of healthy food, they can focus on developing their English skills for the extra hours of tutoring.
DonorsChoose is the most trusted classroom funding site for teachers.
As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Ms. Jensen and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
