By Dean Poling
VALDOSTA — America’s Second Harvest of South Georgia’s new Teacher’s Harvest exemplifies how local involvement can and will improve education, said U.S. Rep. Jack Kingston, R-Ga., Monday during the facility’s grand-opening ceremonies.
Teacher’s Harvest will offer teachers supplies for their classrooms. Housed in the America’s Second Harvest’s Industrial Park headquarters, the items will cost certified teachers of participating school systems nothing.
These are items which teachers often need for students in the classroom — pencils, paper, notebooks, bookbags, scissors, etc. There are a few electronic devices available, with the possibility of more in the future. Extras that many classrooms need are available, such as paper towels, snacks, flash cards, disinfectant wipes, treasure-box items for small children, mats for young students’ naps, bottles of hand sanitizer, etc.
America’s Second Harvest will begin orientation for teachers on Oct. 22. On Nov. 2, Teacher’s Harvest opens for shopping, said Frank Richards, America’s Second Harvest of South Georgia’s executive director.
Once open, Richards said, Teacher’s Harvest will start changing lives and eliminating poverty in South Georgia.
Of the more than 41,000 students in America’s Second Harvest’s 10-county coverage area, more than half are reportedly enrolled in the reduced-price lunch program, Richards said, citing the need for school materials in addition to hot meals for the region’s youngsters.
The 10-county region has more than 3,300 teachers who spend an average of $430 per year, out of pocket, for materials in their classrooms. This averages to regional teachers spending $1.4 million annually to keep their classrooms operating.
Teacher’s Harvest will hopefully defray, even eliminate, these costs to teachers.
State Rep. Amy Carter, D-Valdosta, told the dozens gathered in the new Teacher’s Harvest facility that she was speaking as a teacher Monday, not as a member of the Georgia General Assembly. She spoke of watching children beg for pencils and teachers answering such requests out of funds from their own pockets.
With exception of America’s Second Harvest’s Kids Cafe programs, which literally feed thousands of young people daily, Carter said she could think of nothing better to nourish young minds than the new Teacher’s Harvest program.
“Frankie, you’re the leader,” Carter said to Richards, “the one with the vision.”
Kingston praised Richards’ entrepreneurial spirit in creating new ways a community can help its own. The congressman added that the best answers can often be found locally rather than depending on Washington, D.C.
“Just because something is a good idea doesn’t mean it should be federalized,” Kingston said. He noted how things improved in Iraq once the Sunnis and Shiites began talking to one another on a local level. They made their own peace, community by community, Kingston said.
The more localized the involvement, the more improvement, he said, referring to education. From experience, he said the difference between private and public education isn’t the quality of students, teachers or materials. It’s the amount of parental involvement, adding he says higher degrees of parental involvement in private schools than public schools.
For the Valdosta school system, Superintendent Dr. Bill Cason told The Valdosta Daily Times after the ceremony that he believes Teacher’s Harvest will benefit the city’s teachers and students.
“Given the state cuts we’ve faced in the classroom,” Cason said, “this will be a huge resource for our schools.”
