Area youth, adults invited to join local hunger project

When economic hard times hit, hunger is often not far behind. When people lose their jobs or have to take a job with lower pay, buying food for the family is often balanced with needs like keeping one’s home, keeping warm and keeping healthy.      “Hunger, Here?” is a new local project funded by a State Farm Foundation Global Youth Service Day grant program. To carry out the project, southern Aroostook area youth and adults are invited to join a team researching issues related to “food security” in the southern Aroostook area and beyond. This could include looking into causes and prevalence of hunger, what local resources exit to help with the problem, how people can best help to support local food resources and learning about ways to fight hunger all around the world.
The project kicked off with a free community dinner sponsored by the Houlton High School Civil Rights Team, but that is just the beginning!  Over the weeks between now and Global Youth Service Day, April 24, a “Hunger, Here?” team made up of youth and adults who would like to work in partnership with youth will do a service learning project on local food needs that will culminate in an area Hunger Fair on April 24.
This project was started by the University of Maine Cooperative Extension Aroostook County 4-H Professional Christy Fitzpatrick and the Houlton High School Civil Rights Team, but area youth ages 12 and up from all kinds of groups and organizations are needed to help research the needs and resources available in the area and plan ways to share information and address needs.  Adults who want to learn more about working in partnership with youth on community issues are also invited to participate.
To get started, all interested youth and adults are invited to a “Hunger, Here?” introductory meeting on Tuesday March 2 at the Gentle Memorial Building (The “Rec”) at 6 p.m. “We will talk about the project, identify the work the group  would like to do, plan a timeline, organize a community youth action training, and start plans for the Hunger Fair. A light pizza supper will be served,” said Fitzpatrick.
For more information, please contact Fitzpatrick at the Houlton Cooperative Extension Office at 532-6548. An RSVP would be helpful, but not necessary. Please come help with this important work.