On a mission trip to Africa, Josie Britt helped feed the children who came to a soup kitchen associated with the Omalunga Primary School in Grootfontein, Namibia.
Ever since, she has been thinking about those children holding out whatever they had -- a bowl, a pencil case, a plastic margarine tub -- to take the cornmeal mush that she was serving, which they ate with their fingers.
The mush is called pap.
"It tastes a lot like grits," Josie said.
Josie is a sixth-grader at Jefferson Middle School, and, a couple of months back, she decided to see whether the people at her school would be interested in helping her raise money to send to the soup kitchen, where $5 is enough to feed a child for a month.
The school took on the project in a big way. Art students painted milk jugs to use to collect contributions. Students made presentations encouraging fellow students to pack a lunch once a week and donate what they would have spent for lunch that day. By the time the three-week project ended, the students and other contributors had donated $3,475.83. A bit more has come in since, bringing the total to about $3,500.
Before the project started Josie's father, Cliff Britt, agreed to have his law firm -- Comerford & Britt -- match whatever the students raised. So the soup kitchen -- which a woman named Linda Pretorius runs through a nonprofit organization called Serving in Mission -- is receiving a total of $7,000, enough to feed the 700 children in the program for two months.
Josie's father and her mother, Joanna Britt, say they think that one reason everyone responded so strongly is that, as part of Josie's presentation to the school, she showed a video made at the soup kitchen. So the students saw the faces of the children that their donations would help.
The Britt family's connection with the soup kitchen is a personal one as well. The family goes to Augsburg Lutheran Church, and over the years, Pretorius has stayed with them when she comes to the United States. Eventually, the Britts decided that it was time for them to go to Africa. Josie has three older brothers. Ben is a seventh-grader at Jefferson. Max is a ninth-grader at Mount Tabor High School, and Zach is a junior there.
The family spent two weeks in Africa during the summer of 2008.
"My favorite part was at night, and when you looked up, there were so many stars," Josie said.
Joanna Britt said that her children were impressed by how, although the children in Namibia had so little, they seemed so happy.
When Josie decided that she wanted to raise money at Jefferson, her first step was to write a letter to the principal, Frank Martin.
"It really hurt my heart seeing all those kids in Africa that only get one meal a day, and they do way more work than my brothers and I do," she wrote in part.
After Martin offered to let her approach the students, Josie -- with help from her friend Carrie Clowers -- created a PowerPoint presentation, and the members of the student council and National Junior Honor Society voted to take it on as a project, with help from guidance counselor Lisha Vannoy.
"It was very student-driven," said Kathy McDonald, the honor-society adviser.
"Our goal was to come up with ideas that would motivate kids to donate," eighth-grader Rana Elgazzar said.
Because they wanted all the money to go to the children in Africa, instead of prizes, they came up with such things as ribbons that students who donated $1 or more could wear and a fabric banner that students who donated $5 or more could sign.
Rana emptied out the jar that she saves coins in at home.
Seventh-grader Noland Vannoy was so inspired that he packed lunch every day and donated what he would have spent.
"I liked what this cause was," Noland said.
Joanna Britt e-mailed Pretorius to tell her how much was going to be coming her way to help the children in Grootfontein.
"She e-mailed me back and said, ‘I have just fallen off my chair,'" Joanna Britt said.
kunderwood@wsjournal.com
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