My Meaningful Math workshop shares ways to bridge in world issues with your math curriculum. The following math questions came from information provided from the Rice Raiser 2008 campaign goals. The Rice Raiser is a youth mobilized Fundraiser and Food Drive available to schools in North America.

1. The Rice Raiser Charity is going to assist a meal program at a school in Sierra Leone for 300 children.
   1. If $20 provides lunches and snacks for three students for a year, how many children will be able to receive lunches and snacks if we raise $1,000?
   2. $65 provides lunches and snacks for 300 students (an entire school!) for one week. How many weeks can we feed these children if we send them $2,800?
2. Funds raised from a Rise Raiser school fundraising campaign will go towards developing a School Garden in Sierra Leone so that children can learn how to grow their own food and their parents can learn about agricultural practices.
   1. $12 provides one bag of seed for a garden. Each garden needs 10 bags of seed (the bag of seeds will include lettuce, maize, okra, pepper, potato, onion, cabbage, carrot and bean seeds). How many gardens will $720 be able to provide seed for?
   2. Our school raised $4,860. Each garden including all the seeds, tools (hoes, shovels, spades, wheelbarrows, rakes and watering cans) and fertilizer costs $405. How many gardens could be created from the funds we raised?
3. Rice Raiser Fundraisers help to provide food for a privately run orphanage in the Ukraine:
   1. $25 will provide the food for an entire month for one child living in an orphanage in a village in the Ukraine. How much money will it take to feed 50 children for six months? How much for one year?
4. In Kenya we are helping to provide gardening (agricultural) training and materials to a village of people who live in extreme poverty on about $1 per day!
   1. $75 will provide a household with 5 kg of specialized Maize Seed, 50 kg of fertilizer, 2 hoes, 1 axe and training from an Agronomist. How many households can be helped if we can send them $5,000?
5. In Bangladesh we want to help the rice field workers who do not have any income during the months in between planting and harvesting rice. This is called Monga season during which many people struggle for survival living on one or only one half a meal per day. We would like to provide seeds for a garden, or fruit trees, or a calf that can grow and be sold for a profit (micro enterprise).
   1. $1 will provide vegetable seeds for 7 families. We want to provide enough seeds for 600 families. How much money do we need?
   2. $57 is enough money to buy one calf which can be sold for a profit after 4 months. How much money do we need to send them to provide 25 families with a calf?
   3. 10 families can share 2 fruit trees for only $10. If we send $300, how many fruit trees can we buy? How many families will be able to eat fruit?

Contact Rice Raiser for more information on running a food drive and rice fundraiser in your school.