Kelsey Huynh makes her pitch called Helping Hands Ending Hunger Sunday afternoon at the Church on Main venue. Huynh won first place in the TeacherPreneur Pitch Night contest of that include 16 finalist.Top ideas
1. Helping Hands Ending Hunger, Kelsey Huynh, East Side Elementary2. Community Classroom Connections, Victoria Jones, Tyner Academy3. STEAM Hub, Kristin Burris and Judi Jasinski, Chattanooga School for the Arts and SciencesAudience favorites:› Insπre Core, Stacy Hill, Red Bank High School› Quick Read, Melanie Commander, literacy coach
Kelsey Hunyh started her presentation at Sunday night's Public Education Foundation Teacherpreneur pitch night by painting a picture of the bleak circumstances facing some of her students at East Side Elementary School.
It worked.
"Imagine, you're eating breakfast in the school cafeteria, you're licking your bowl of oatmeal clean and you're slurping your milk dry," Hunyh said. "Your belly is still grumbling and your friend is throwing away his unopened milk and yogurt.
"All you want to do is grab that food, shove it in your backpack and take it home to your friends and family so they can eat it on the weekend."
Hunyh said it's a reality many of her students face each day: 25 percent of Hamilton County students have food insecurity and aren't sure where their next meal is coming from.
It's why she is heading up the Helping Hands Ending Hunger initiative, which took top honors among 16 presentations made by Hamilton County teachers in front of a packed auditorium and a panel of judges at the Church on Main.
The night was a culmination of the annual Teacherpreneur incubator program that equips local teachers to develop business plans for educational initiatives that can help the county school system. Forty ideas were submitted, 16 were chosen as finalists and five teachers were awarded cash prizes, although all 16 ideas are still in position to receive funding through the program.
Helping Hands Ending Hunger is new to Hamilton County, but not to the area. Hunyh said during her presentation that Trion City Schools in Chattooga County, Ga., saved 12 tons of milk and food from going to waste in a single year.
The program collects unopened milk and food throughout the day at school to be saved and redistributed to students' families at the end of the week.
"We're hoping to be a pilot in order to start this program in other Hamilton County schools," said Hunyh, who is entering her fifth year as a teacher in the system. "Just imagine if every school rescued milk and food and helped alleviate food insecurity in Chattanooga."
School board Chairman Jonathan Welch said he hopes the program becomes a strong community partnership that begins to address some of the hunger issues facing children in the county.
The Helping Hands End Hunger initiative was one of several passionate presentations from teachers seeking backing for ideas that ranged from a program that helps student learn science through hip-hop music to a database for teachers to plan, research and review field trips.
It was the third year for the program, which is also sponsored by the Footprint Foundation, the Hamilton County Department of Education, the Benwood Foundation and CO.LAB.
"Who knows best what needs to happen? It's people doing the job every single day," PEF innovation and technology programs manager Geoff Millener said. "You can see from the few we were able to put on stage tonight the kind of innovative thinking that exists. Those ideas weren't from one or two schools, they were from across Hamilton County."
Contact staff writer David Cobb at dcobb@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6249.