St. Joseph’s Fourth Grade Goes Hot-Diggity for the Helping Ends Meet Food Program

A recent project by St. Joseph’s Indian School fourth graders in their Junior Achievement (JA) class raised $425 for the Helping Ends Meet Food Program. The program weekly fills and sends home 165 bags with weekend meals and easy-to-prepare food for children in grades BK-5 at risk for hunger in the Chamberlain area. Bags include two each of a breakfast item, a lunch item, a fruit and a snack.

The Fourth Grade JA Curriculum includes a simulated hot dog stand, which planted the seeds for the real deal in January. Students looked forward to warmer days when their dream might become a reality. When the end of the school year approached, Lennex Provancial took matters into his own hands, showing up in President Mike Tyrell’s Office to set the date before time slipped away.

The students went “hot-diggity” to assemble the event under the watchful eyes of JA leaders Tyrell and

Human Resources Recruiting Associate Alayne Daly. Once the date was set with the support of Fourth Grade Teachers Alyssa McQuirk and Steve Conway, attention turned to where the proceeds might go, and students settled early on charitable giving. One student learned that Daly was working on a master’s degree and proposed the funds support her. The Helping Ends Meet Food Program came up, and everyone agreed to donate the money to that effort.

“The students were fully in charge,” said Tyrell. “They made posters and put them around campus. They planned how the serving line would work efficiently and determined job assignments.” According to Tyrell, they even scripted customer service, which included saying, “Thank you for coming,” to the more than 100 customers served.

“The kids were very excited to be ‘in charge’ of the hot dog stand,” said McQuirk. “They were very respectful and appreciative to have jobs in the serving line. They showed great enthusiasm while helping the customers through the line.”

Conway added, “The students felt good about themselves and learned how to help themselves by doing nice things for others.”

The hot dog sale is one of several dozen community-service projects planned annually by the students of St. Joseph’s Indian School to exercise the Lakota value čhaŋteyuke – generosity.