Two years ago writer Steve Fiffer heard about a successful program for hungry students at Evanston’s Orrington School called “books and breakfast.” He convinced his wife, Sharon Sloan Fiffer, that they should replicate it at Kingsley School, where their daughter was a second-grader. Evanston has its share of urban problems but as the Fiffers described their plans to others, many people were surprised to learn that hunger was among them. In fact, students had been showing up to school with stomach aches because they hadn’t eaten anything at home. “If your kids get fed you just assume everybody’s kids are getting fed,” Steve says. “Some of them are really, really hungry.”
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With the help of their friend Judy Groothuis, who also has children at the school, the Fiffers made a promising start: a neighborhood bakery donated 67 loaves of bread, which they farmed out to freezers all over the north shore. Volunteers signed up at a PTA meeting to bake muffins once a month. Sweat equity, individual donations, and funding from the school and a local business kept the program afloat for its inaugural year.
The Kingsley books and breakfast club, which has now served more than 11,000 meals, provides a good start to the Fiffers’ day too. “It gives you a different kind of focus,” Sharon says. “You stop thinking about everything else because you need to be giving these kids your attention.”
“So many of the examples in this book are of individuals who observed something and were so moved by it that they really couldn’t help but do something,” Steve says. “They were all kind of stunned that they have the power to make this kind of a difference in people’s lives.”
