Montezuma-High School students were served up a dose of reality last week in the form of breakfast.
Students with the Family Career and Community Leaders of America and the Future Farmers of America gave out 150 tickets randomly to students throughout the high school. Those tickets allowed the students to a free breakfast put on by the student groups in honor of Poverty Awareness Week.
Amanda Ramos, M-CHS agriculture teacher and FFA adviser, said the group of students used national statistics to then divide those 150 students into groups. Of the students that attended, 15 percent were randomly labeled “upper class,” 30 percent were randomly labeled “middle class,” and the remaining 65 percent were labeled “lower class.”
“If you make less than $14,000 a year, you don’t have access to food and you may miss a meal,” Ramos said.
To illustrate their point, after giving the students attending different statistics, the upper class group was treated to a full breakfast with bacon and eggs. The middle-class group was given bagels, and the lower class was given a cup of Cheerios, without milk.
“It was supposed to be shocking to kids,” Ramos said. “There are people in the world that can’t even barely afford to be healthy.”
In the end, Ramos said the presentation went well.
At one point, they even moved a couple of people from the middle class to the lower class, explaining that they may have lost a job.
Students that participated then signed a pledge to bring canned foods to the Friday football game to donate to a local food pantry.