Up All Night for Hunger

Who: All Jewish high schoolers in the area What: Up All Night for Hunger Where: A local middle school—anywhere that can hold between 50-100 people (or target attendance) with enough areas for different activities. Our location included a gym that could be divided in two, a pool (only for a few hours in the morning), and then a common area/cafeteria. When: 12 hours—ours was from 8pm till 8am. Why: To raise awareness of hunger problems in the world and raise money to donate to organizations that help to alleviate hunger (the organizations we used are described later).

Planning Two months before *Get together a committee to start planning (if needed) *Begin publicity—flyers sent out and around the community One month before *Flyers out to all Jewish teens in the area Two weeks before *Finalize schedule for the night and any materials and speakers/bands/etc. *Phone-a-thon

Logistics Costs: The location itself was our largest cost, added to the cost of food and supplies, lifeguards, etc. We were lucky to get a grant from the Jewish Federation to offset costs, and also sent out letters to companies asking for corporate sponsorship. Admission fee: Participants were charged $15 if they signed up early (up to a few days before the event) or $20 at the door. Most money was able to be donated. Staffing: We had three staff stay all night, plus two security guards and lifeguards that came in the morning. Food: Publicity:  Flyers out one month prior  Flyers put up in local businesses & at the JCC 3-4 weeks prior  Phone-a-thon one week before  Other phone calls made 1-2 weeks before—to prospective participants  Flyers and talks to Hebrew schools 3 weeks prior

Organizations The money was donated to two different organizations: Table To Table is a unique organization in Israel that deals with an immediate response to hunger throughout the country. Founded in 2003, Table to Table rescues excess food that would otherwise be destroyed and redirects it to people in need. Their volunteers and staff provide food to over 100 soup kitchens, homeless shelters, and other social service organizations around Israel. www.tabletotable.org.il

The Hunger Task Force of Milwaukee organizes wide-scale food drives in the community, and then sorts and allocates the food to various other shelters and organizations. It never charges for receiving, storing, or delivering food. In addition, the Hunger Task Force works as an advocacy group against hunger. It has helped found, improve, and promote several other hunger relief agencies, and also helps to organize campaigns against hunger throughout the community. www.hungertaskforce.org Participants were also asked to bring canned food which was donated to the Jewish Food Pantry.

Supplies Needed  Attendance list  Sign in sheet  Something to collect money in  Hunger shtick supplies (see separate word document) + scripts  Band equipment  Speakers  Flashlights  Basketballs, soccerballs, small foam balls for scatterball  Baseball bats  Hula hoops  Cones  Living Museum supplies (see separate word document) + scripts  Movies—Pay It Forward, Pursuit of Happyness, Freedom Writers  Projector  Speakers (for movie and for music elsewhere)  iPods  Letter scripts (see separate word document  Paper  Pens  Food—pizza, breakfast food, snacks, soda, water, popcorn  Paper goods—plates, cups, napkins  Art kits—make decorations to donate

Schedule 00:00-00:30 Arrival 00:30-01:00 Icebreaker activities 01:00-01:45 Hunger shtick 01:45-02:00 Free time/set up 02:00-03:00 Gym time with planned activities 03:00-04:00 Band & snack 04:00-04:15 Free time/set up 04:15-05:30 Living Museum 05:30-06:00 Free time + start movies/quiet room 06:00-07:00 Dance party 07:00-09:00 Movie 09:00-10:30 Swimming 10:30-11:00 Letter writing 11:00-12:00 Wrap up, breakfast, leave

00:00-00:30 Arrival

As people arrive, collect money and take attendance.

Supplies: attendance list, sign in sheet, somewhere to collect money

00:30-01:00 Icebreaker activities

Bear/Pencil/Balloon: This is a variation of a rock/paper/scissors tournament. Everyone grabs a partner and plays the game (either one game or best of three). Whoever loses becomes a cheerleader for the winner; the winner then goes onto play another winner. Whoever was cheering for the losing team begins cheering for the winner, and follows the winners till there are only two people left. It can get really intense and loud, so beware! Bear eats pencil Pencil pops balloon Balloon suffocates bear Birthday/height game: Have people first line up by height without talking. Once they see how easy this is, tell them to line up by birthday without talking. **This icebreaker was prepared but not used for our event—we found it better as a backup.**

Supplies: none

01:00-01:45 Hunger shtick

A few months before the event, we began a committee to plan to hunger aspects of this program. This is the first program they came up with. Five stories about the effects of hunger were created after researching and reading other stories. It should be in a dark room, with everyone sitting in a circle around the outside. The props are in a circle on the inside. For the full script, see the “Hunger shtick” document.

Supplies: blanket, rocking chair, cans, flashlights, shawl, scripts

01:45-02:00 Free time/set up

02:00-03:00 Gym time with planned activities

Our gym was able to be split into two areas by a folding wall. The participants were split into two groups, one on either side. On one side, there was a game of scatterball going. On the other side were relays. After 20 minutes, the groups should switch sides; with extra time, start a full game of scatterball or let them play basketball, etc.

Relays:  Super dizzy race—spin around a baseball bat 20 times then run back to team  Running/bear walk/crab walk/army crawl to end of gym and back  Wheelbarrow race  Hula hooping—run to end of gym, hula hoop for ten seconds, run back (running could be changed to crawling, bear walk, etc.)

Supplies: small foam balls, baseball bats (2), cones, hula hoops

03:00-04:00 Band & snack

We asked a well known teen band in the area to play for us for an hour, and provided pizza during this time. Many people came to just watch the band and then left. These people were asked to pay half price ($10). Also at this time, we set out supplies to make some decorations to be donated to a local elderly home and hospitals. The kits were from Oriental Trading, and made snowmen and bracelets and other things.

Supplies: speakers, band equipment (if not brought by band), pizza, art kits

04:00-04:15 Free time/set up

04:15-05:30 Living Museum

See “Living Museum” document for the full script and outline. This was the main program of the night. We chose four locations (Milwaukee, D.C., Israel, and Haiti) and created skits and displays for each. The skits showed how hunger affects every area of the world. The participants split into four groups and rotated through, 5-10 minutes at each station. There was also a fifth rotation that all groups came together for called “How We Can Help”. This one involved asking kids what they have done and what they will do to help fix the issue of hunger in our society. Tour guides were asked to help run the program. They had blurbs before each station and led their groups around. The tourguides were not members of the planning committees; they were people that weren’t as active in BBYO or that we though could handle a leadership position.

Supplies: **see Living Museum script** requires a lot, depending on skits, scripts

05:30-06:00 Free time + start movies/quiet room

At this point, a small side room became the “quiet room” with movies playing (Pursuit of Happyness, Pay It Forward, and Freedom Writers). Participants could relax or sleep in that room.

Supplies: movies (“Pursuit of Happyness”, “Pay It Forward”, “Freedom Writers”), projector, snacks

06:00-07:00 Dance party

A few people made playlists on their iPods, and anyone else with an iPod was invited to break it out and choose songs. We had speakers to hook up the music to. The music ended up lasting till the letter writing program.

Supplies: iPods, speakers

07:00-09:00 Movie

We planned for everyone to come back together to watch Pay It Forward, a movie that involves community service and the concept of paying it forward—doing more good deeds instead of simply repaying the person who did something for you.

Supplies: movie (“Pay It Forward”), projector

09:00-10:30 Swimming Lifeguards were provided by the school.

Supplies: lifeguards

10:30-11:00 Letter writing

Letters (see “Letters” document for actual script) were written to our senator and governor telling them of the state of hunger in Wisconsin and asking them to pass the Food Stamp Act. Participants were given a letter and asked to rewrite it; all letters were then mailed out together after the program.

Supplies: letter scripts, paper, pens

11:00-12:00 Wrap up, breakfast, leave

We ended by thanking everyone for coming, etc, and breakfast —bagels and donuts. Before eating breakfast, participants had to turn in their written letter. An idea we had here was to bring in a local Rabbi to talk about the Jewish response to hunger. Though we didn’t end up having a rabbi come, it would have been a good end to the night.

Supplies: breakfast food (bagels, donut holes, orange juice, apples)

Tips and what should’ve been done differently  Begin asking for corporate sponsorships EARLY and follow up on them. We ended up only getting one donation, but the money was balanced out by the grant.  Depending on your region and timing, schedule more activities. We decided to make most of the morning relaxing, with some structure that was optional…some people ended up sleeping, some watching movies, some dancing, etc.  Have a list of backup activities for extra time. We ran into an empty half hour slot at one point and were put on the spot to think of other activities. Come up with some “plan b” games.  Be flexible! The band ended up needing a time change, and some activities will take longer/shorter than planned.  Publicize, publicize, publicize!! Although many area businesses were given flyers and said they would put them up, we went back a week before the program and very few flyers were actually up. Make sure to follow up with businesses if you do this.  Work with other youth groups and the community. We were able to get the NFTY president to help us plan (but no actual NFTY participants came) and got a bunch of people at the event that aren’t active in BBYO.

End results Throughout the night, we had 71 people come and raised over $700. It was definitely a success, and I hope it happens again!