An integral part of the sixth-grade curriculum is deepening students’ learning around public purpose. 

Each fall and winter, sixth graders are introduced to two organizations that are longtime RCDS community partners: Port Chester’s Meals on Main Street (MoMS) and White Plains’s Our New Way Garden (ONWG). They learn about each organization's mission, their daily operations, and the various ways they help community members access nourishing food for their families. They also learn about the broader issue of food insecurity, its presence locally, nationally, and globally, its various causes, and ways to alleviate it. Students then dive into action through engaging with each organization.

In March after the break, one group of sixth graders visited ONWG and another welcomed MoMS CEO Jon Haseltine. 

At ONWG, the students learned how the organization supports equitable food production and distribution. ONWG has over six acres of farms in the tri-state area and partners with food pantries (like MoMS), soup kitchens, churches, free markets, and schools.  Students were interested to learn how ONWG promotes a local food system that ensures equity and access through equitable food production and distribution, education, and environmental stewardship.

Arriving on campus in the Meals on Main Street community van, Mr. Haseltine demonstrated the non-profit’s efforts to ensure food provision throughout the community. Mr. Haseltine emphasized that MoMs work goes beyond basic food assistance, as it upholds a commitment providing high-quality food to affirm the dignity of all families and the right to nourishment for all.

Later this spring, the student groups will swap organizations!