Every night in America there are one million children under 18 living on the streets or in a shelter. Fifty thousand of the children are unaccompanied minors. About half of children in shelters are under the age of five.

On Thursday, September 23rd, 24 kids in the Cheverly Kids Care Club learned about the effect of homelessness in their community, and packed over 100 "sleepy snack sacks", care packages for children who are admitted to the shelter after dinner has already been served, and would otherwise go to bed hungry.

The kids and their parents collected donated items and raised money by telling area businesses about the project. Some kids donated their own money.

The children decorated bags, and packed the bags with a personal note, a nutritious snack, and a hand-picked small gift.

They also participated in several activities to learn about homelessness. Jon's mom, Beth, discussed how families can become homeless, and what we can do to help. The children drew pictures and wrote letters to politicians about homeless issues. Seleste and Sydney's mom, Sonya, led an activity designed to teach the children about hunger and the unequal distribution of food. A child with a "have" ticket and one with a "have not" ticket simultaneously shot up their hands saying "But Miss Sonya, we should all SHARE the snacks!" Tammie led the popular "egg drop" activity. This activity divided the kids into teams to acheive a goal, and gave one team all the best resources to acheive the goal. "That's not fair!" they realized rather quickly. (They spent the next 15 minutes experimenting with the physics of keeping an egg from breaking :-).

The children also had time to read through storybooks written for children about homelessness.

The children left with a handout about homeless issues, a reading list, and a note to parents about how to follow up and nurture their children's natural compassion about this issue. If you would like a copy of the information packet, email Tammie