I believe that being Mayor is not only an honor, but also a great responsibility. Our Mayor and the City Council have to be open to new ideas so they can help the community to improve Troy. I would like to be ‘Mayor for a Day’ to get the chance to make our community aware of ways to avoid wasting food in our schools. This way, children who never have enough food to eat for dinner can actually have a filling meal every night.

Our problem is that some children may go home with no food in their refrigerator or cabinets, or they have to share small portions with their family members. If we take the uneaten food the lunch ladies cook every day and put it into bags or packages for needy children to take home for supper, they won’t be so hungry. In order to do this, we will need volunteers to package the food and give these packages to the children at the end of school every day. We will also need the lunch ladies to cook just a little extra food so that more children can have a meal. The faculty at the schools can help set up by putting together a list of the children they feel could use this program. They can help set up a schedule of volunteers like parents, high school students, or even people in the community who want to donate their time to help others. Because having volunteers is so important to this kind of program, it would be good to encourage the high school students to get involved if they need community service hours to graduate. This way, they will earn their community service hours they need and learn a powerful message of what it is to help others. A committee could be set up to also hold fund raisers and scheduling them at different times during the year. They could set up volunteer schedule for the fund-raisers to make sure there are always enough people involved to help. These fund-raisers will pay for the materials it will take to package up food to send home with the kids everyday.

This program could be called “Meals to Go”. It will be held in a specific area of the cafeteria everyday after school so the children will know where to go and get in line to pick up their meals. The school would hold an assembly to introduce the idea to all the children to tell them what a great thing it will be not to waste any leftover food when some students might need it for their suppers. They could talk about it and make sure no students are embarrassed to be in line and if any child knows someone who would need to be in the program, they could tell their teacher. The teachers would then get the food they need.

Once the food is packaged up and ready for the kids to pick in the cafeteria, all the children who need it can just line up and quickly be given their meal. Then they can head outside to pick up line where they will be taken home. These students will be full and much happier. They can focus on homework or test assignments they will be every day instead of how hungry they are. They could actually help improve their grades.

This program will improve Troy and change people’s perspective on schools. All of the students would learn to appreciate things more. While it keeps them healthy and fed, their parents will feel less stressed out about money. It may also inspire other counties to have this program at their school. So the next time you drive you drive by school, think about children who could be a part of this program, and how they will be much happier, full, and will be making better grades.

Sophie Hollis is a middle-school 8th grader at Charles Henderson Middle School was selected as a winner for ‘The Mayor for a Day’ contest. This is her winning essay.