Colorado teacher offers take-home meals for Yale Elementary School students during Ramadan
While Muslims in Colorado and around the world continue to observe Ramadan, one teacher in Aurora is offering meals for students who are fasting to take home and eat after sundown.
The evening of Feb. 28 marked the official start of the holy month of Ramadan for Muslims across the world. The faithful are required to abstain from food, drinks, and water from sunup to sundown for 30 days. And while children aren't required to fast, some want to participate with their friends and family. That's why for the entire month of March, CLDE teacher Miriam Henning has been busy in the afternoons giving out take-home meals to kids at Yale Elementary School who are fasting.
"Some students choose some days to fast and then some days not too fast," Henning said.
She says about thirty students at the school are choosing to fast a few days a week during the holy month.
"We're really excited for the opportunity and that the state and the USDA have allowed us to do this," Katie Lopez, director of nutrition services for Aurora Public Schools.
It's not just at Yale that Muslim students are getting take-home meals. Across the District between five hundred and one thousand students are getting take-home sack lunches to break their fast at sundown.
"I do think it's making a difference in their lives," said Henning.
This is the first year Aurora Public Schools has taken part in this program. Kids get a cheese sandwich, some fruit, some veggies, and milk. It's not as fancy as the meal they would normally eat at school during lunch, but the district says they love supporting their students any way they can.
"We believe that every student needs nourishment to learn and to be supported in their day. So, if we get to be a part of that by having resources available to them so they know that support is a given, it's the best part of our day," Lopez said.
"I really enjoy working with this population. I've learned a lot about, all of the students and their families and their culture," Henning said.
Henning says she isn't sure how much of that food she sends home with hungry kids actually lasts until sundown, but she suspects that for a lot of these kids, it's about more than just having food to eat.
"The parents have reached out and said that they appreciate having the food as well, and, the kids just really like having the attention sometimes of getting those bags, but also they're doing a lot of fasting throughout the day. So that really kind of gives them a reward at the end of the day with that food," said Henning.
Ramadan will end on either March 29 or 30, depending on the phase of the moon on those days, because it's based on the lunar calendar.
