Richland Parish 4-H Toucans Make a Difference Food Drive
[Image: Food Drive]4-H'ers from Richland parish participated in the Toucans Make a Difference Food Drive service-learning project. The goal of the project was to increase awareness of homelessness and hunger, provide a local food bank with resources to present clients with food and coats and to increase youth participation in community.
Care & Share is branch of the Northeast Louisiana Food Bank located in Rayville. It serves more than 1,000 families in Richland Parish. It is supported mainly by donations from local churches and Richland 4-H. The director of the food bank contacted 4-H to make sure that we would be conducting the annual food drive because donations were down and request for help were up dramatically. Junior Leaders sent invitations to schools requesting that they all participate. Packets for publicity were made up and distributed to schools. Junior Leaders from each school helped design a collection station which resembled a tree. Students who brought two cans were given a leaf to put on the tree. Students read bulletins about hunger during morning announcements. Students collected, sorted and packaged the food, sorted the jackets collected, and helped prepare packages for clients. Thank-you notes from the Care & Share were read at each club meeting.
Richland Parish 4-H was recognized as contributing the most food to the food bank. Youth were recognized for having the most leaves on the trees. Youth were given time to tell what they learned. Most stated that they did not know that Richland Parish had more than 1,000 families depending on the food bank. Some youth did not know that there was a food bank in Richland Parish. The project lasted 25 hours and served 1,050 people as of 5/20/2009.
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