How One Grace Elementary Student Made an Impact for Hungry Children

Every year, Grace School partners with Children's Hunger Fund for a food pak drive. This year, one of our elementary students, Elsie Davenport, turned in an envelope with a monetary donation and an enclosed note. (see below). She explained that she decided to make headbands, sell them and give all the proceeds to Children's Hunger Fund (CHF). 

Not long after the conclusion of the drive, CHF reached out to Grace Elementary. They wanted to meet Elsie and hear the story of how she came to consider doing such a compassionate and selfless deed. When Grace contacted Elsie's mom to ask permission for CHF to meet her daughter, she explained that Elsie got the idea from her 3rd grade teacher, Madison Skidmore, who showed a video in class of herself as a Grace Elementary student in 2012. The video chronicled Mrs. Skidmore's story of how she herself, as a third grader, came up with an idea to make headbands and hats to sell at the school carnival in order to raise money for CHF (click here to watch that interview which is posted on the CHF website).  

After watching Mrs. Skidmore's video in class, Elsie was inspired and asked her mom if she could do something similar to raise money for hungry children across the world. Of course, Elsie had the full support of her family and she raised over $100, all of which she donated to CHF. 

At Grace, we believe it is important to teach children to have compassion and learn to serve others selflessly who are less fortunate than themselves. It is for this reason and most importantly, for the sake of the Gospel, that Grace School has partnered with Children's Hunger Fund for 20 years. We have conducted the Food Pak drives at the elementary school for approximately 12 years and about 8 years ago, our leadership decided to make it a church & school project every February. We love to witness the joy and enthusiasm our students display as they fill and drop off their Food Paks during the drive. Truly it is better to give than receive. They always look forward to next year! 

Elsie's story of how she was inspired by her teacher, Mrs. Skidmore, affirms our commitment to hire teachers who love Jesus and who desire to not only teach academics, but to also teach what it means to love and serve others. We are grateful for Mrs. Skidmore and the profound impact she has had on her students, Elsie being just one of them.

We are also grateful for our on-going partnership with organizations like Children's Hunger Fund so we can train up the next generation to make an impact for Christ across the world. 

For more information about Children's Hunger Fund, visit their website here.