School efforts to alleviate hunger and food insecurity have become a common service experience. When project team members used Galtung’s Triangle of Violence to analyze the food drive at their high school, they noted that many donations had no nutritional value and low appeal for many of the local food pantry visitors. Team members interviewed hunger experts and local food bank employees. They reimagined the school’s hunger drive to focus on rice — one of the most requested items in local food pantries. In the first year of #RiceforLife, the team collected more than 1,193 pounds of rice. In the second year, 4,000 pounds of rice was collected. The project has continued as an annual school event.

It’s estimated that 98 percent of people trafficked around the world are women and girls. When a project team learned the extent of the issue – and the impact in their community – they collaborated with a local nonprofit to raise awareness and funds to support women trying to transition from trafficking. The team met with women artisans and heard stories about their challenges due to trafficking. They hosted an event to sell hand-crafted jewelry made by women-owned businesses and raised over $2,500. They also created an awareness campaign that encouraged students to wear blue, a color linked to a national campaign against human trafficking. The project engaged 300 students and community leaders in conversations about the issue.

In July 2011, South Sudan became the world’s newest country. Within six years, there were outbreaks of civil conflict and parts of the country experienced famine. A project team learned that refugees from South Sudan had attended their school. Many were “Lost Boys of Sudan,” a name given to almost 30,000 children and young people who fled when their villages were destroyed. The team organized a “Walk for Wisdom” to educate students about the power of education to overcome a culture of conflict. They collaborated with a nonprofit to purchase books and solar lights for two primary schools in South Sudan. Seven hundred students participated in the first Walk for Wisdom. The next year more than 2,500 students from five schools participated and raised almost $10,000 to supply textbooks to South Sudanese primary schools.