DEARBORN — Two groups of kids from opposite ends of Metro-Detroit and very different backgrounds came together on Tuesday to learn about volunteering, teamwork and each other.

Students from Holbrook Elementary in Hamtramck and Winchester Elementary in Northville have been communicating for months as pen pals, and on Tuesday they got to meet as they worked in an assembly line to help the hungry.

The group measured, mixed, weighed and sealed 16,500 13.8-ounce bags of rice-soy casserole mix to go to local food banks, developing nations and victims of natural disaster.

Each bag feeds six adults or 12 children, organizers said.

The groups Bridgepointe and Kids Against Hunger got help from Kiwanis Club volunteers and the Arab American National Museum, which provided space for the project, and a Middle Eastern lunch. The students toured the museum after reaching, and then surpassing their goal of preparing 15,000 meals.

Six other food packaging events are to take place this year at other locations.

Holbrook Elementary students from Hamtramck and Winchester Elementary students from Northville work in an assembly line to mix and package food for the needy at the Arab American National Museum on Tuesday. PHOTOS: Khalil AlHajal/TAAN

Director of Bridgepointe Diane Powers said the projects allow students to learn about community participation and intercultural appreciation.
“Bridgepointe is a group that tries to get kids from the city and the suburbs together,” she said, “and hopefully in that space some old prejudices dissolve and new respect will grow… so that this generation of children gets to know each other a little better than older generations did.

“We’re getting more rich in our culture and we need to understand each other.”

Kiwanis volunteer Bob Evans said the kids relish in the idea of helping people, and that they benefit from being exposed to a brand new crowd.

Kiwanis Club volunteer Bob Evans helps students seal packages of casserole for the needy at a Kids Against Hunger event Tuesday meant to bring kids from different backgrounds together for a cause through the nonprofit Bridgepointe.

“You have interaction here between two cultures — Northville and Hamtramck. They normally wouldn’t ever have a chance to meet each other,” he said.
Holbrook Principal Mike Zygmontowicz and Wincheser Principal Pat Messing said the two schools over the past year have developed a relationship through letters, Kids Against Hunger projects and regular visits.

“We want them to experience something outside of Hamtramck,” said Zygmontowicz. “There’s a million things that they can go out there and see… It’s learning, but not through a book. They just love it.”

Winchester students on trips to Holbrook catch a glimpse of a historic, less priveleged school with a student body made up almost entirely of Yemeni Americans and other ethnic and minority groups.

Northville and Hamtramck children look at a photography exhibit showcasing Yemeni American life and history at the Arab American National Museum on Tuesday.

A Winchester group is due to visit Holbrook in February for a Black History Month program.
Zygmontowicz said Holbrook, built in 1896, is the state’s oldest operating school.

Holbrook students who visit Winchester get a look at a less diverse but newer, grander school.

“They don’t verbalize a lot, but the looks on their faces — taking it all in — they realize that it’s different,” said Messing.

Holbrook fourth-grader Walid Saleh, 9, who said helping the hungry makes him feel “like a superhero,” thinks the interaction between the two groups helps them understand each other.

“They’ll see the Arab people are nice and they can be nice to them,” he said.

He said he also learned about people different from himself when he visited Winchester.

The school and the students were really nice, he said, and “their lunch is very, very good.”

Visit www.kidsagainsthungercoalition.com or www.bridgepointenonprofit.org for more information.