5-4-13 food for freedom update

Fond du Lac, WI – Fond du Lac High School (FHS) juniors Danny Loomans, Marissa Wustrack, Doniell Ericksen, and senior Erin Steward comprise the Food For Freedom student team working together to break the world record for the largest food drive in a 24-hour period over Memorial Weekend.  Jennifer King, a business and marketing teacher at FHS, received notification this morning that the group is a top finalist in the World Hunger Leadership Challenge.  The challenge, which accompanies the Lead2Feed program, will announce the official winner of the top $25,000 award on May 15, 2013.   Through the charitable efforts of the Lift a Life Foundation, Yum! Brands Foundation, and the USA Today Charitable Foundation, the group participated in the free Lead2Feed program under the direction of King.  The program is designed to help the team learn about leadership and team work as it ties into a service learning project to alleviate world hunger. 

For the students, the service project became Food For Freedom, which will directly impact the food pantries and the 82,000 people living in poverty in five counties in Northeastern Wisconsin:  Fond du Lac, Winnebago, Outagamie, Brown, and Sheboygan.   One of the initial steps in the challenge was to become a non-profit organization.  With the help of the Windhover Center for the Arts (owned by the Fond du Lac Arts Council), Food For Freedom was able to secure 501-C-3 (non-profit) status providing Food For Freedom with the tools it needed to move forward.  The Food For Freedom student team submitted a video presentation as their entry to the World Hunger Leadership Challenge.  If awarded a monetary award, the money would be used to purchase cases and pallets of food from local grocers that would be donated and included in the food totals Food For Freedom.  

Food For Freedom will launch Memorial Weekend at 1:00 p.m. on May 25 and close at 1:00 p.m. on May 26 at Fond du Lac High School.  This massive food drive will impact the lives of over 82,000 citizens currently living in poverty in Northeastern WI.   All food collected will be distributed to the local food pantries in Brown, Fond du Lac, Sheboygan, Outagamie, and Winnebago counties.  A community in North Carolina holds the current world record for the largest food drive in a 24-hour period with 558,885 pounds of food.