Waterloo Community Schools and Prime Time Volunteers RSVP, Waterloo, Iowa

This project expanded on an existing partnership to add a service-learning component to ongoing mentoring relationships. RSVP mentors and their mentees engaged in service together, choosing one of two opportunities: 1) One group volunteered at the Northwest Iowa Food Bank to learn about the scope and depth of hunger in their community. Six mentors and their mentees packed over 300 bags of food that children take home in backpacks to supplement their families' food supplies. Volunteers were also educated on the existing community need for food assistance. 2) A second served at the Cedar Valley Arboretum and Botanic Gardens, where eight mentors and mentees participated in spring cleanup activities and gained an appreciation of the arboretum and its benefits to the community. Both efforts were tied to current school curriculum and opportunities for future service projects will be available when a district greenhouse is opened in the fall of 2008.