Thinking globally begins on day one for UAIS

Utica Academy for International Studies is showing its students that thinking globally begins on day one.

UAIS used its freshmen orientation this week to organize a packaging project that will provide 18,000 meals for the needy in both the Metro Detroit community and throughout the world.

"Our students are involved in these projects because we want them to think on a global scale," said UAIS teacher Justin Spear, who leads the school's Key Club that organized the project.

More than 10O UAIS students formed an assembly line during orientation to package grain and other non-perishable food into packages that will be distributed to both local food banks and needy families in Somolia.

The students worked with the international organization Kids Against Hunger. UAIS students work on service projects throughout the school year as one of its International Baccalaureate focus on CAS - Creativity, Action and Service.

"This is a large part of what we do at our school," said student organizer Deanna Schafer. "We are involved with this project because hunger is truly a world issue."

The mission of Kids Against Hunger, a humanitarian food-aid organization, is to significantly reduce the number of hungry children in the USA and to feed starving children throughout the world.

The organization’s approach to achieving its goal - the eradication of world hunger - includes the packaging of a highly nutritious, vitamin-fortified soy-rice casserole by volunteers at numerous locations within the USA and Canada, and the distribution of those meals to starving children and their families in over 60 countries through partnerships with humanitarian organizations worldwide.

In 2009 alone, volunteers at Kids Against Hunger’s food packaging centers across the USA packaged over 48 million meals for children and their families around the world and around the corner.