For Action Against Hunger, Breakfast is Served

One good deed deserves another and, in this case, a very good deed earned a deserving Guilford High School (GHS) class a great breakfast.

On Jan. 23, members of teacher Tom Unger's geometry level 1 class were treated to a delicious hot breakfast of chocolate chip and blueberry pancakes, bacon, fresh fruit, chocolate banana bread, and even ambrosia with fresh whipped cream. The food was whipped up and served by GHS teachers Jim Motes and George Cooksey, who donned chef's coats for the occasion and manned the griddles.

The occasion celebrated the success of Unger's class as the top food contributor to the GHS Action Against Hunger Club food drive to benefit Guilford Food Bank. Most GHS period one classes participated in the drive, but students in Unger's class were really in it to win it, according to their teacher.

"They really jumped at the opportunity. Jim and George are great at trying to get all of the kids to understand there are people in need and this group is just a really neat class and a motivated group. They're all sophomores and they're a very competitive class," said Unger, who also is GHS head football coach.

"The first day, we were like, 'Let's win it,'" said student Matt Truedson.

"We were buying cans and getting them from our cabinets at home," added student Morgan Shields.

Cooksey said this was the first year in which GHS Action Against Hunger took on running the food drive solo, after partnering with the GHS Student Council last year, which ran annual food drives in the past.

"The group works very hard to promote hunger awareness and raise money to help fight hunger all around the world," said Cooksey of the GHS club, which has about eight members.

He added much of the credit for the success of this year's GHS food drive goes to Action Against Hunger president (and Student Council co-president) Yuning Zhang, who wasn't able to attend the breakfast.

Unger's class collected 652 cans of food over the course of the three-week Action Against Hunger GHS Food Drive, which sent a total of three pick-up truck loads to Guilford Food Bank in December.

In past years, winning classes have been treated to donuts, said Latin teacher Jim Motes, who has had winning food drive classes in the past. He came up with the teacher-cooked breakfast idea last year and continued offering the prize this year.

"Last year, I didn't have a first period class and I thought it would be a lot of fun to do this. We just picked it up and ran with it," said Motes, who also told Unger's students prior to serving breakfast, "I want to thank you very much for what you did to help out those less fortunate than us. I grew up as a less fortunate person…and it taught me to give back."