Support Our Schools (SOS) Campaign
HomeGrown Heroes is a local farm to school STEM education program that seeks to educate every child about where their food comes from, how to grow it themselves, and the relationship that food has on our health and our environment. Our farm to school program was developed as a result of learning about the severe issue of food insecurity in our area, especially among children. North Carolina has one the highest percentages in the United States of children under 18 years of age who are food insecure on a regular basis: in N.C. that is almost 1 in 4 children. (24.6%) There are 24 food deserts in Guilford County, NC – 17 in Greensboro and 7 in High Point. The Food Research and Action Center (FRAC) in 2014 ranked our area No. 1 in the nation for people who had difficulties securing food based on a percentage of the total population. The most recent poll from FRAC has ranked our area 9th in the nation for food insecurity.
HomeGrown Heroes believes this is our opportunity to take our biggest challenge and turn it into our biggest opportunity for innovation. Our goal is to launch our Support Our Schools (SOS) public education campaign by transforming a miniature school bus from Thomas Built Buses, which is one of largest manufacturers of school buses in the nation and is also located in High Point, NC, into an educational mobile market that will serve our communities and schools fresh produce from our local farmers. To encourage families to purchase from the produce bus, a portion of the proceeds will go to support our school's food education and nutrition programs. 
The mobile market model we wish to replicate using a minature school bus is FoodShare's Good Food Mobile Market from Toronto Canada. Our educational mobile market will be equipped with solar panels on the roof to power the refrigeration units inside the bus to keep our produce fresh as we make our deliveries to our schools and communities. At each stop our produce bus will include hands on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, & Mathematics), gardening and food education activities to further enhance our children's learning experience. 
Our SOS public educational campaign is a call to action to support our schools at time when tremindous funding and nutritional changes are occurring within our public edcuation system. The new H.R. 610 education bill that is currently being reviewed by the House of Representatives will abolishes the equal opportunity in education Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 and the No Hungry Kids Act of 2012 which provides certain nutrition standards for the national school lunch and breakfast programs. 
Here is a map of how HomeGrown Heroes plans to transform our community through our schools using the educational mobile market. HomeGrown Heroes has been working in parntership with FoodCorps at Parkview Elementary as a pilot farm to school progarm. We have expanded their school garden learning area and are working to intregrate our first kids culinarian food education program there. FoodCorps is also involved with Oak Hill Elementary where the Thomas Built Bus Preserve & Orchard is located, next to Thomas Built Buses school bus manufacturing facility. Our HomeGrown Heroes high school team from Penn-Griffin School for the Arts and A&T University STEM Early College will help assist FoodCorps at each of the elementary schools with peer to peer garden learning activities as a way for the high school students to receive their service learning hours. We are also working in partnership with From The Ground Up (FTGU) community urban farming initiative to encouge children and their families to get involved in gardening and food education activites outside of their school system and in their own communities. The produce bus will make stops at these urban farming lots (marked by the 5 stars on the map next the FTGU logo) and will offer live food demonstrations from our chefs while having community garden workdays to help our communities grow together. Finally we will give grocery store tours at our neighborhood grocey store Superior Foods to teach children and their families how to purchase and prepare healthy nutritious recipes on a budget. 
HomeGrown Heroes need a swarm of community pollinators participating in our Support Our Schools (SOS) public education campaign to help fund our first educational mobile market to pollinate awareness about nutrition to our schools and communities. If you contribute $10 or more to our Support Our Schools campaign, sign our change.org petition advocating for the sponsorship of our educational mobile market, and to the repeal of the H.R. 610 educational bill and I will personally mail you a #pollinateawareness produce bus sticker shown below. Here is our change.org link. https://www.change.org/p/thomas-built-buses-sponsorshipfor-the-homegrown-heroes-educational-mobile-market
I am going to trust if you email me your mailing address at [email redacted] that you have given $10 or more to our Support Our Schools public education campaign, and has signed our petition to recieve one of our produce bus pollinate awareness stickers. 
Please copy and paste the BOLD infomation and links below to your Facebook with a picture of your produce bus sticker (shown above) when participating in our Support Our Schools (SOS) public education campaign challenge.
HomeGrown Heroes Support Our Schools (SOS) public education campaign challenge.
1. Buy a HomeGrown Heroes produce bus bumper sticker for $10 using the GoFundMe link below. Infomation about our cause and how to email me your mailing address to receive the produce bus sticker is on our GoFundMe page.
2. Put the produce bus sticker on your car, refrigerator, give it to your kid to put somewhere, etc.. Take a picture of it.
3. Post your picture to Facebook using hashtags #supportourschools #SOS #pollinateawareness
plus copy & paste this information with the links below.
4. Click on the change.org link below to sign our petition advocating for Thomas Built Buses to help sponsor our educational mobile market and our Support Our Schools public education campaign.
5. Tag 2 of your friends to your post and challenge them to take the HomeGrown Heroes Support Our Schools (SOS) public education campaign challenge
to help us fund our public schools nutrition and food education programs.
LINKS:
https://www.gofundme.com/supportourschools
https://www.change.org/p/thomas-built-buses-sponsorshipfor-the-homegrown-heroes-educational-mobile-market
www.homegrownheroes.org
When sharing our posts please use hashtags #supportourschools #SOS #pollinateawareness #homegrownheroes & activatenow to help our grassroot movement blossom to its fullest potential.
Our greatest hope is to have the help of community pollinators from all our the nation to promote the national farm to school movement and support our schools to ensure adequate nutrition and education for all of our children. HomeGrown Heroes is beyond grateful for your contribution to help fund our first educational mobile market.
Know your power to help our community grow, be a HomeGrown Hero!
Check out more on our website www.homegrownheroes.org and our facebook page www.facebook.com/knowyourpowertogrow/
With great gratitude,
HomeGrown Heroes
.
