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Schools

Middle School Kids Help Feed the Hungry

Students decorated brown bags and fill them with food for Maureen's Haven.

In an area as affluent as the East End of Long Island, some people might find it hard to believe that there are homeless people who live here.  Several weeks ago, however, students from the Hampton Bays Middle School not only learned about being homeless on the East End, they also took steps to help those less fortunate than themselves through the trying winter months.

Over the past few weeks, students from the middle school have been learning more about the homeless situation on the East End in the classroom and also fundraising to purchase food items to donate to Maureen's Haven, a non-profit organization that facilitates shelters and soup kitchens on the north and south forks. Fifth and sixth graders in the school also came up with unique drawings to decorate each of the brown bags as a way to cheer up the recipients of the bags.

On Wednesday a group of 24 student volunteers from the seventh and eighth grade got together after school to pack the decorated bags with non-perishable items such as water, granola bars, chips, lollipops and apples.  Forty of the bags will be distributed to the homeless through Maureen's Haven this weekend, while the remaining will go the following weekend.  Sandwiches will be added immediately prior to their distribution, which will take place at Saint Mary's Church in Hampton Bays.

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"I knew it would be a good cause," said Emma Hanis of Hampton Bays, 13.  "I thought it would be a good thing to do," added Alex Maitland-Ward, also 13 and from Hampton Bays, whose mother, Rowena Maitland-Ward, a member of the Parent Teacher Organization, helped to organize the effort.  "It's not that much time out of your day to help people, and it's worth it," Alex said.

The students decorated and packed a total of 80 bags, assembly-line style, with food purchased from $95 collected through donations from other students.

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"It was like a factory," said 13-year-old Nikki Nolan, an eighth-grader from Hampton Bays who volunteered to help stuff the bags.  "I wasn't expecting the kids to be so organized."

The program came about after a representative from Maureen's Haven, which organizes several outreach programs for the homeless, came to speak to the students at Hampton Bays Middle School last month.  The presentation outlined the mission of Maureen's Haven, which acts as a sort of mobile homeless shelter, facilitating the pickup of homeless people from various sites throughout the North and South forks every evening from November to March.  These people are then taken to various churches, where they are given a hot meal and then are allowed to spend the night.  In the morning, they eat breakfast before being returned to their original sites, brown lunch bag in hand.

According to Middle School Assistant Principal Michael Carlson, the school's Parent Teacher Organization decided after the presentation to try to get the students more involved as a way to increase community service and to promote empathy for the homeless.  Teachers in the middle school then decided to add it to the curriculum, incorporating discussions about the homeless into their social studies classes.

"I was really happy with not only the opportunity, but also the way teachers ran with it," said Carlson.  "They made it not just about coloring a bag."

According to Maitland-Ward, the middle school will continue to contribute to Maureen's Haven throughout this winter, having committed to providing for an additional three lunches for the shelter.

And judging by the amount of money raised by the students, and the fact that everyone involved is excited to continue the effort, it seems that the lesson is being embraced.  "It felt good because they're less fortunate than us," said Lisa Kling, 13, of Hampton Bays, who also volunteered after school to help fill the lunch bags.  "We're doing a good thing."

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