Teaching our children about empathy

In 2014 I learned about The Lunch Project and the work they were doing in our local schools to teach children about empathy. Their model was quite simple. Educate children about a social issue and allow them to tangibly contribute. The Lunch Project serves hot lunches to school children in Tanzania by empowering their local community. One hundred dollars will feed an entire school of 900 students.

Back here in the US, the organization understood the opportunity to connect the work in Africa to our local community. Not everyone can go and participate firsthand like I did, but everyone can find ways to use their skills to contribute to the world. The Global Empathy Education Program goes into schools and uses a curriculum to transform recognition of differences into appreciation.

During the summer, the organization runs the Summer of Service (SOS) program to empower kids to put empathy into action. This past summer our children decided to participate. It’s been a few years since I traveled to Tanzania, but they kids are now starting to appreciate the stories, pictures and videos from that trip with intrigue. When I explained that they could come up with a way to raise money for a day of lunch for the kids, they got super excited.

Coming up with an idea that would raise $100 is not the easiest for kids. Their comprehension of money is not the most accurate. After a lot of brainstorming they settled on selling lavender bundles from the garden at our cabin. This was a bit of a win-win as I needed help harvesting all of it. The two of them got to work, cutting, bundling and then setting up a stand to sell it. Apparently lavender is quite the hot commodity. We sold out pretty quickly and they made over $100 in one morning. They bugged me for weeks about making sure I turned in the money so the kids could get their lunches. It seems like they definitely understood the point.

Kids think in very literal terms. We can teach empathy in many ways, but being able to see a child that looks like them is very identifiable. If you haven’t checked out the empathy education program from The Lunch Project, I really encourage you to.