PHOTO CREDIT: CHEY PINO
BY LOUIS DENNIN
Cooper City High School students worked together to package meals to feed starving children around the world on February 26, 2015. This was the second of a recently adopted event that hopes to donate these meals, this year sending the meals out right here in Broward County.
Collectively, the volunteering student body was able to assemble over 100,000 meals in a single day. The materials were provided by the nonprofit charity organization Feeding Children Everywhere, a movement dedicated to making a tangible impact in the lives of the less fortunate by distributing healthy meals to as many malnourished youth as possible. The organization will give four meals for every dollar raised, as well as the money earned from selling t-shirts, bracelets, scarves and other merchandise. Feeding Children Everywhere has been eagerly instigating mass packaging events all over the country, so CCHS students Persis Bhadha and her sister Alexis Bhadha decided to get involved themselves by raising money for charity at Miami Dolphins games during the 2013-2014 school year. Eventually the two decided to bring the operation to CCHS last year so that their community would be able to join in the battle against hunger, and their effort has been worth it. After Persis Bhadha graduated, senior Alexis Bhadha was able to organize this year’s extremely successful gathering of helping hands.
“Students wanted to get involved because of the massive social impact we had the potential to make,” Bhadha said. “[They] felt a responsibility to be a social catalyst of change without any other motives.”
Representatives visited classrooms around campus to ask for help in this large project, trying to motivate their peers to devote their afternoon to the benefit of kindness and community. This door to door publicity piqued the interest of a surprisingly large faction of the student body, as well as 350 other volunteers. Students affiliated with all different clubs, such as DECA, NHS and Key Club, came together to help package the food. It was a time for teenagers from all over the school to work towards a single cause because they felt it was the right thing to do. They formed teams to package lentils, rice, and other nutritious items as fast as they could, while cheering each other on.
“[The students] were pleasantly surprised by the high energy and passion, and they left feeling inspired by the impact they had made,” Bhadha said.
Motivated by music, each other, and the tremendous feeling of good will amongst them, this year’s team broke the previous record of 30,000 meals from last year, more than doubling it. This is an encouraging omen for future events, and many hope that this act of goodness and caring will continue to live on as a tradition at CCHS.
