The eighth graders of the Atlas Academy, an honors program within Tennyson Middle School, swapped their notebooks for work gloves Thursday and served several charities in Waco.

85 students were dispersed against four organizations, including the World Hunger Relief Farm and Shepherd’s Heart Food Pantry. The school does it during the week of Martin Luther King Day to commemorate his service to others.

“I think it’s important to teach our students that we need to give back to our community. That we need to help each other out,” says Atlas teacher Jennifer Adams. “We tell them ‘Teamwork makes the dream work’, and that motto needs to go beyond the halls of our school building.”

While the day of service was supposed to serve as an educational opportunity as well as a charitable one, it was something more to the students.

“It makes you feel good. It really does. And also, we care about these people and it really is important,” says eighth grader Fox Seagle. “You just come here, and you talk to these people, and you just meet them. It’s a great time and it’s really fun.”

The students cleaned up the World Hunger Relief Farm, making it easier to harvest affordable healthy food for the hungry. At the food pantry, they bagged hundreds of vegetables and meats while helping customers shop and load their cars.

It was enough to impress their teachers.

“I feel a lot of pride in them. I’m very proud of them. When we came out here today, they didn’t know what to expect. They had never done anything like this before, and the way that they have thrown themselves into this activity and this service has been really heartening,” says Atlas teacher Kimberley Keele. “Several of them have mentioned this is something they want to continue to do.”

School staff say they want this to become an annual tradition and to expand to even more charities.

— KWKT 44