2nd Graders Learn to Earn and Give
Dec 15, 2010 | Taylor Long 
Today, The New School's 2nd graders learned a valuable lesson about earning and giving by donating $4,000 worth of food to the Northwest Arkansas Food Bank. The transaction took place at City Hall, where Mayor Lioneld Jordan met the two classes to congratulate them and thank them by offering them City of Fayetteville pins and a tour of his office. The mayor then accompanied the children outside to lend a helping hand, loading hundreds of pounds of canned and boxed food into the Food Bank's truck.
Our 2nd grade classes, taught by Ms. Andrea Hadfield and Ms. Laura Apperson, raised this impressive amount of money as part of their unit on money. The project began with the students learning about loans by actually applying for one from the Bank of Arkansas in November. After being approved for a $300 loan, they used the money to purchase crafting supplies and holiday treats. They used these supplies to make gift items, and set up a Holiday Store in their classroom, offering an array of hand-made ornaments, as well as tasty treats to school parents and fellow students. The students used the money they earned to pay back their $300 loan, leaving them with more than $4,000 in profits, a record high in the history of this New School tradition!
Today, these classes embarked on the biggest grocery run of their lives, heading to Walmart with $4,000 to spend on food. After purchasing $2,500 of canned and boxed food, they put the rest of the money on a gift card for the Food Bank to use as needed. After stopping for lunch to recover from their shopping extravaganza, the 2nd graders arrived at City Hall for a meeting with Mayor Lioneld Jordan. The Mayor has been tracking the progress of this project, offering support and encouragement through letters to the students. Today, he congratulated them for their success and thanked them for their generosity, assuring them that they would remember this day for years to come. After taking the students on a tour of his office, he accompanied them to the bus outside to join City staff, Food Bank volunteers, and New School teachers and administrators to load hundreds of pounds of food into the Food Bank truck.
The New School is proud of the hard work invested by our 2nd grade students and their teachers in this project.