Five Students’ Stories
As part of Celebration of Hope’s 5-Day Solidarity Challenge, many of Willow Creek’s Elevate and Student Impact students rose to the challenge and lived on rice and beans from April 21-25.  Five students from Carl Sandburg Junior High School in Rolling Meadows agreed to share their experience. Here is the story of Melanie Kent, Hannah Lee, Davy Mellado, September Vaudrey, and Justine Venegoni:

What foods did you eat during the 5-Day Challenge?
SV: Rice, beans, plain oatmeal. .  .
HL: My mom made fried rice.
JV: I toasted tortillas and made them into chips in my toaster.
MK: Lots and lots of rice & beans.  I don’t ever want to see rice and beans again!

How did your friends in the school lunchroom react?
DM: Most of them thought it was pretty cool. They’re like, ‘Oh yeah, you’re doing that rice and beans thing.’
MK: “Some of them would try to tempt me, like, ‘Oooo, Melanie. . .doesn’t my sandwich look goooood?’
SV: Once we explained why we were eating just rice and beans, they said, “That’s cool. I give you props!”
JV: We took turns bringing food for lunch. That made it a little more fun. . .

What was the hardest part of the Challenge?
All: Our energy level! We had no energy.
JV: I needed more sleep.  My mom let me sleep in and then drove me to school at the last minute.
SV: I’m in Track & Field, and it affected my running events.  By my last event, it was so hard to run.
HL: But Davy still cleared five feet in High Jump!
MK: I’m in Track & Field and soccer. I had zero energy by the time I got to soccer.
DM: It was hard not to have snacks. One of my teachers gave everyone a treat one day, but I couldn’t eat it. Then my sister had to make cookies for a bake sale, so she and my dad baked homemade cookies.  They’re doing the Challenge, too, so they couldn’t even lick their fingers! The cookies smelled so good, I went to my room and closed the door so I wouldn’t smell them. . .
JV: The monotony was hard. I just wanted a new taste, a new texture in my mouth.  It was so boring to keep eating the same thing every day. I can’t imagine doing it forever.
MK: It was hard having no sweets. And it was really hard watching other people eat!
HL: I tried to pretend I was eating pizza. (It didn’t work!)

How are you going to celebrate the end of the challenge?
DM: Grandma’s chocolate cake!  There is nothing in the world like my grandma’s chocolate cake. And our family’s going to Famous Dave’s to eat.
HL: Chocolate Ho-Ho ice cream!
SV: We’re going to bake a bunch of cookies, brownies, cupcakes, and then have a sweets-fest at 12:01a.m. on Friday night!
JV: Chicken!  My sister ate rotisserie chicken in front of me, and now I’m craving it!
MK: Our family is going to Apple Villa for breakfast. And I’m gonna eat a huge bowl of chocolate brownie ice cream!
All: CHOCOLATE!!!

How has this experience changed you?
MK: I learned that I don’t need to eat as much food as I thought.  After a couple days, I really wasn’t that hungry.
HL: Before, if I threw away food, September would tease me, ‘Just think of all the starving kids in Africa. . .’ But now, I really do think about starving kids in Africa.
JV: I definitely will waste less food now.
DM: It made me really appreciate all the different stuff I get to eat.
SV: Before, if I was hungry, I’d say, ‘I’m starving!’  Now I think, “No, I’m not starving. There really are people in the world who are starving, but I am not starving. I’m just hungry.”

Seeing Through a New Lens.
“Everybody brings their own lens into life,” said Carl Sandburg Junior High School principal Ed Nelson. “It’s great to see these kids doing something that helps them see things from outside that lens.  They’re trying to become situational in understanding the oppressed and the poor.”