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The Great American Bake Sale
http://www.greatamericanbakesale.org/site/PageServer
by Cynthia Wetmiller

Bake sales are always popular fundraisers in schools and communities. Normally, the bake sale proceeds are put towards a school trip, new uniforms and equipment or a school event such as a musical or dramatic production. Now, thanks to Share Our Strength (http://www.strength.org/) and Parade Magazine (http://www.parade.com/), your next bake sale can have a national impact! How? Join the "Great American Bake Sale" movement that helps address childhood hunger in America.

According to the "Great American Bake Sale" website (http://www.greatamericanbakesale.org/), childhood hunger is an issue that needs national attention and advocacy. Consider these statistics:

• "Thirteen million children in America are hungry or at risk of hunger." "One out of every eight children under the age of 12 in the U.S. often goes to bed hungry." "Every fourth person standing in a soup kitchen line is a child." "Hunger impairs a child's ability to learn in school."
• "Child poverty is more widespread in the U.S. than in any other industrialized country"  (http://www.greatamericanbakesale.org/site/PageServer?pagename=about).

Get involved with the "Great American Bake Sale" and transform your students' efforts into service-learning in any of the following ways:

1. Bake sales involve money, and handling money involves math skills and life skills. Math students and life skills students can play a role in creating a budget for the bake sale, keeping track of net and gross profits and making change for bake sale customers.

2. You can't have a bake sale without baked goods to sell and eat.  Preparing baked goods for the bake sale can involve math skills, such as making measurements and using fractions, cooking skills, reading skills, such as reading recipes, technology skills as students search the internet for downloadable recipes and life skills as students sort and package the baked goods for the sale.

3. The bake sale will not be successful if you don't spread the word about it in the school or community. Students can further develop art skills by creating posters. Technology skills can be bolstered as students send out email about the event or create a Great American Bakesale section of the school's website to recognize the event.

These are just a few ideas for bringing together Family and Consumer Science, Life Skills, Learning Support, Computer Science and Math classes to participate in the "Great American Bake Sale." Before the school year comes to a close, consider making your next bake sale one that addresses childhood hunger and service-learning by participating in the "Great American Bakesale".