Gardens and Goats

 

Lebanon Valley College students, staff, and faculty recently participated in a global poverty awareness event, raising money to provide sustainable food options for children in Africa.

The initiative, #PassMyPlate, is an educational challenge promoting awareness of how extreme poverty, defined by the World Bank at $1.90 or less a day, has resulted in a hunger epidemic affecting millions around the world. Funds raised by this challenge are helping the American Foundation for Children with AIDS (AFCA) build sustainable food solutions for children living in Sub-Sahara Africa who are infected or affected by HIV/AIDS. 

The College worked with Metz Culinary to hold a poverty simulation to raise funds for AFCA earlier this month. This lunch was a short-term model of the #PassMyPlate initiative, which ran initially throughout September. The full challenge encouraged participants to eat on $1.90 per day for an entire week. At the end of week, participants donate the amount they normally budget for a week’s worth of meals.

Together, LVC and Metz Culinary raised enough funds to provide three families in Africa sustainable food sources. Each family is receiving three goats and a garden, which they may use to grow food and make a small profit from the goat’s milk, which can go a long way for these families.

The LVC event was able to make a difference by coming together as a community, and just in time for the holiday season! What a great example of how we can all make a difference.

 

-Maria Scacchitti, Marketing and Communications Intern