A long walk is a good way to work up an appetite, but for inspirational* Prep student Emma Reade it’s also a way to solve hunger.
Emma, 6, is taking part in the FareShare FootSteps Challenge, promising to walk 100km to raise money to help feed people in need.
And her efforts are already paying off. So far she’s clocked up 19km and is on the top of the Little FootSteps leaderboard, well on the way to meeting her fundraising goal of $2000.
“Moving makes you feel happy and helping other people makes you feel happy too,” Emma said.
“Every school day I am walking, running or riding 1km. Then on the weekends I am doing a lot more.
“I have been going up and down my long driveway – sometimes I even stop and feed the cows.”
Growing up in country Victoria with lots of fruits and vegetables in her home garden, Emma understands the importance of nutritious* food.
“It helps us grow and stay healthy. It also helps us stay alive and have lots of energy,” she said.
The FootSteps Challenge is run by charity kitchen FareShare and was inspired by its chefs who walk about 15km a day as they turn rescued and donated food into 50,000 free and nutritious meals for the needy each week.
The charity rescues fresh produce, including from supermarkets, manufacturers, farmers and wholesale businesses*, that would otherwise be thrown out because it is surplus* and has not been used.
A small team of FareShare chefs and 1500 community volunteers cook home-style meals, including roasts, casseroles, pastas and savoury pastries, for hundreds of charities across Australia, including soup vans, homeless shelters, women’s refuges and community food banks.
The FootSteps Challenge encourages participants to “move for meals” by walking, running, riding or even swimming their target distance of 25km, 50km, 100km or 150km over 15 days.
This year’s FootSteps Challenge runs from Sunday, October 3, to Sunday, October 17.
For more information and to sign up, see fareshare.net.au
GLOSSARY
- inspirational: making you feel hopeful or encouraged
- surplus: more than what is needed or used
- nutritious: containing many of the substances that help your body to be healthy
- wholesale businesses: businesses that sell goods to other business in large quantities and at lower prices so that these businesses can then sell them to individual customers
EXTRA READING
Young fundraisers’ crafty idea to save koalas
How giving a little makes a big difference
Kids helping kids with One=One campaign
Feed Appeal to help hungry Australians
QUICK QUIZ
- How far does Emma plan to walk for the FootSteps Challenge?
- What is her fundraising target?
- Which charity runs the FootSteps Challenge?
- How many meals does this charity cook for people in need each week?
- Where does the charity get the food it uses in the meals it cooks?
LISTEN TO THIS STORY
CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
1. Create an Advertisement
Create a script or a storyboard for a TV or online advertisement. Your purpose is to encourage kids your age to join the FareShare FootSteps Challenge.
There are lots of advertisements for great charities on TV and online, so make your advertisement really stand out and be very convincing. Think about using music and try writing a catchy and memorable jingle, song, rap or rhyme for the advertisement.
Time: allow 40 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, Media Arts, Visual Communication Design, Music
2. Extension
FareShare helps to solve the problem of wasted food by making meals for people in need. Can you think of something else that is wasted every day or is a problem? Can you think of a way that these wasted or problem things can be used to solve another problem in our community?
Write a description of the problem and a plan that shows how your solution can be carried out.
Time: allow 30 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, Personal and Social Capability
VCOP ACTIVITY
Little Footsteps Leaving Big Footprints
Emma is doing a fantastic job of raising money for charity. There are lots of ways you can make an impact of peoples lives. It might be raising money, donating items or donating time, it could also be doing a good deed.
Write about a time you helped out a person in need. It could have been for charity, for a friend, or even for someone you didn’t know.
What did you do?
How did it make you feel?
How long did it take you?
On a scale on 1-10, with 10 being life-changing, how would you rate the impact you had?
Write it neatly on a footprint template. Then create a wall in your school for everyone to add their footprints to be able to display their good deeds.
You might like to see if the principal wants to pick one each week to read out at assembly and celebrate.
