Kids fight hunger one step at a time

The closest a child used to get to fighting world hunger was stuffing down a few extra peas while mom nagged, "Finish your food. There are starving children in Africa."

Not anymore. At Alpine Elementary, children are actually buying lunch for those starving African children.

The school has agreed to donate 40 cents — enough to purchase a week's worth of lunches for one Kenyan child — for every 10 miles the students walk this year. The money comes from a $12,000 Utah Department of Transportation grant the school secured to get cars off the roads and students walking safely.

In October, Alpine Elementary students walked 5,000 miles.

"They're walking so much we're going to have to increase our goal," said principal David Stephenson. Right now the students are trying to log enough miles to "walk" to Africa.

Because Alpine Elementary follows the state's Gold Medal Schools program, the school can't bribe children to exercise using the traditional methods — snacks and sweets. So, Stephenson said, the administration had to think of more creative ways to motivate them.

"It's an invaluable reward to be able to help someone on the other side of the world," the principal said. "It helps the students realize the blessings they have in their lives."

Comparing Candle Light School, Alpine Elementary's beneficiary, to the Utah County elementary school is humbling.

At the Kenyan school, sturdy brick walls plastered with student art projects are replaced by rusting sheets of thin tin. Three students sit at each rickety desk. Lunch is served, not from a bleach-scrubbed cafeteria, but from the packed-dirt floor.

"Sometimes kids can't go to school because they can't afford a meal," said Evelyn Jepkemei, senior assistant director of education for Kenya. "If a child is hungry, they can't worry about learning."

Jepkemei and two of her colleagues dropped by Alpine Elementary to thank students for their contributions. The Alpine-based nonprofit organization Inside-Out Learning brought them to Utah to observe American classrooms.

"The children and leaders at Candle Light School really appreciate what the students here in Alpine are doing," Jepkemei said. "It really makes a difference."

The Kenyans gave the students a glimpse of what a day at Candle Light School is like by teaching them a popular African playground game and showing them photos of Kenya.

"I thought it was really cool because I really didn't know the language, but I could still play the game," said Abby Newell, 11, after she learned the game, which is played in Swahili. "It was different from what we do here, but it was cool."

Newell, like many of her classmates, has started walking to school and doing laps around the playground in order to earn more meals for the Kenyan students. She paused when asked if she'd rather get something tangible, like a treat or a toy, for all the extra walking she's doing.

"No," she said. "I like this because I feel good inside. You can get candy and toys at the store. They need meals more than I need stuff."

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E-mail: estuart@desnews.com