Tell the students that for the next several weeks, they are going to be exploring the issue of hunger and food insecurity and applying their philanthropy skills and academic skills toward designing a project to address the issue creatively and through real-world service. Tell them about the Project Based Learning approach that puts the responsibility in their hands for defining an issue, conducting research, and presenting carrying out solutions. Explain that service-learning is a teaching and learning strategy that applies academic skills to real-world service.

Say, "Today and for the next several days we are going to learn some basic information about the issue of food insecurity and start defining what the problem is."

Some of the challenges of feeding a population start on the farm. Tell students that food production decisions are made based on cost of materials or procedures, demand for the food, type of product, and availability of resources. Give the students some examples of decisions farmers must make that affect costs:

• For security and health of livestock, farmers decide how to protect animals from disease and predators. There are different costs and risks with different veterinary treatment plans and different holding systems. If a disease does enter the system, this increases the cost for the farmer.
• A drought greatly affects the cost of food. If a drought affects the corn crop in a whole region, it raises costs across the board for everyone. Corn is a food crop used in many forms, a huge supplier of animal feed, and in recent years it also has become a significant source of fuel. When the availability goes down, it affects several areas of the economy.
• Many people are demanding organic food. Organic food costs about 30% more to produce. That has an effect on availability to people who cannot afford the higher cost. Additionally, more land is necessary to produce organic food, making it more difficult to significantly increase food production.

These food production decisions impact the issue of hunger in the U.S. The students' job over the next few weeks is to explore food production issues and see how they affect the issue of hunger. They will explore one issue in depth and propose a solution based on research.

To introduce the ideas of world population growth and food scarcity, have students complete thePopulation Growth Workshop handoutand explore two specific websites. Bringing up www.worldometers.info will inspire student inquiry as population and other numbers are flying across the screen. The handout also walks learners through an "Investopedia" article. The goal of this exercise is not to have the learners read the entire article. A great research skill is the ability to read charts and skim non-fiction information to determine the most pertinent information. Teachers should remind learners to read the directions carefully as the handout tells which paragraphs they should read and which to skip. The last question on the Population Growth Workshop is meant to strike up conversations on solutions and assets to the problem of food scarcity.

After students complete the handout, teachers should encourage open discussion as a class or in smaller groups to help learners dream of ideas before bringing in research to frame ideas. Use handout three: Agricultural Production Challenges as a resource to spark discussion.

Day Two - Letter of challenge to students

After an introduction to philanthropy and world population ideas in day one, learners are ready to put on their philanthropist hats and engage with the challenge letter to hear the specific focus for this unit.

First, read the letter aloud while learners follow along (every learner should have a copy).