What is a raised garden bed?

A raised garden is typically made out of materials such as wood or concrete. Soil is placed into the bed with the intention for seeds to go in there. Then you water the seeds so that plants can grow in there.

Why should we build a raised garden bed at our school?

We should build a raised garden bed because it is a pretty cheap design (if you only buy one).

What should we not build a raised garden bed at our school?

We should not build a raised garden bed because if you buy more than one garden bed, it can start to get pretty pricey. Also, if we don’t want it to get pricey, and we only get one, we can’t grow so many plants.

Photo of the prototypical design of a raised garden bed:

https://eartheasy.com/cedar-complete-raised-garden-bed-kit-8-x-8/

Explain why you like this raised garden bed and what makes it best.

I like this raised garden bed/it makes it the best( to me) because it looks like it could grow a lot of plants. Also, the design looks unique because most designs are just your standard rectangular box, but this has “character” to it. Also, since it has character, I think/hope that if we built this design, people in the community would see it and be intrigued by the unique idea, and they would maybe want to volunteer more with the taking care of the plants.

This is my new avatar:

 What is your avatar?

My avatar is a lot of hearts inside of one big heart. The heart is different shades of pink because pink is one of my favorite colors.

Why did you chose to make your avatar what it is?

My avatar is a heart because I like to be nice to others and I think a heart represents that. This is because it shows love, which is what kindness is in my opinion. I also chose this avatar because there are lots of mini hearts draw into one bigger heart. To me, this represents the world. This is because each one of us is a little heart, and when we come together and are kind to each other, we create a bigger heart, which shows all the kindness/ love in the world.

 What super power your avatar has/should have?

The superpower my avatar has is to make the world a better place. This is shown because love/kindness makes the world a better place in my opinion, which in this case is represented through hearts, and there are hearts in my avatar. I feel that I am already trying to do this as much as possible. An example is when somebody is not included or looks sad/alone, I always try to include them and make them feel like they belong!

 Link to the website where I created my avatar from:

heart cute png 6

Poverty impacts our community because of where you live ( geographically), your schooling, your family structure, and your health. This is because if all these things arent so good for you, you will have a challenging life because you dont have the advantages of all these things which really help to make a good life. Poverty especially affects black people because people are still racist which makes then black people enabled to get things that other people are able to get such as jobs. This then makes them not have money to pay for things such as houses, food, good schools and good health which then makes them go into poverty. Short term poverty is when you arent in poverty for such a long time. Long term poverty is when you are in poverty for a long time. Poverty mostly happens in the city of Milwaukee out of all of the Milwaukee County.

Explain What the Four Factors of Poverty are and How they Impact One’s Life.

Education-If you dont have a good education, its hard to get a job that can pay your bills.

Geography-Depending on where you live, the education might not be so good, and you might have a lot of mental health issues due to what you have seen in your neighborhood.

Family Structure-If your family doesnt have a lot of money, or a good education, or good health, its hard to get any of those things for yourself, which then makes it more likely for you to be in poverty.

Health-If your health isnt good, it could be genetic and/or you dont have enough money to pay for healthy food and/or you dont have enough money to pay for medical bills when sick, thefore resulting in getting even more sick due to the treatment that you are recieving.

Explain How the Cycle of Poverty Works.

Once you are in the cycle of poverty, it is very hard to get out of it. This is because if you dont have a lot of money, it is hard to live in a good area, therefore get a education, therefore get a job that pays enough money so you can pay all your bills. Some of those bills include medical bills/ money for healthy food and its really hard to be healthy if you dont have enough money to pay for those bills. This is because you could possibly become even more sick due to not eating the right food, or not getting the medical care you need, which then makes it harder for you to work. Then if you cant work, you dont have enough money and then you cant pay your bills. As you can see, this cycle continues to happen and it is very hard to get out of.

How Do we Help People Get Healthy Food Cheaply?

Some people can qualify for SNAPS (money from the goverment to help you pay for healthy food if you cant afford it on your own). Also, my class has talked about creating a green house. I think that there is already money donated from last year’s class that we can put towards creating the greenhouse. Ths green house helps people to get healthy food cheaply because a green house contains healthy food and we could sell it to people for a fairly cheap price. We could put adds around the community to publicize about the greenhouse so people could come help or buy food. For other people who cant get to the greenhouse due to not having transportation, we can collect some of the food from the greenhouse and give it to food pantries so that the people who cant get to our greenhouse, can go to the food pantries and get the food there.

What Government Policy Suggestions do you Have?

Maybe more people could go on SNAPS if the people who were on SNAPS bought food in bulk. This way, overtime people who are on SNAPS will be getting more food with using less of the goverments money. Then the goverment could give all the money saved from buying the food in bulk to help more people on SNAPS. This way, the goverement is spending the same amount of money, yet helping more people for a longer amount of time.

What Changes Can you/we Make to Help?

Maybe we can do the changes I said above.

What is SNAPS?

SNAPS is when you get help from the goverment to pay for your food beacuse you cant afford it on your own.

What is the average monthly benefit for someone on SNAPS?

The average monthly benefit for someone who is on snaps is $126.

On average, I spend $200 on food per month.

My life would be different if I were on SNAPS because….

My life would be different because my portions would not be as much and I couldnt get all the same brands of food.

What factors can lead to poverty?

One factor that can lead to poverty is your education. This is because if you dont  have a good education, it is then hard to get a good job, therefore hard to make a lot of money to support yourself. Also, your family history can lead to poverty. This is because if your family doesnt have a lot of money, then it is hard to live in a good area, which then leads to where you go to school, and if you dont go to a good school, its hard to get a good education, which makes it hard to get a job, therfore hard to make a lot of money to support yourself. Also, if your health isnt good, then you have to pay to get money for medicine, but if you dont have enough money, you are likely to get more sick, resulting in having to pay more money.

What circumstances can fuel long-term poverty?
A circumstance that can lead to long-term poverty is if you have a lot of people in your family. This is because you cant change this and the more people, the more money, therefore making there be lots of money to pay which some people dont have. Also, if one of your parents doesnt work, or they dont live with you, then there if less of an income, therefore creating less money, which people need to survive.

Describe your experience. Tell us about the highs and the lows.  What were your major take-aways? What did you learn? How did you like it?  

In this experience, I was the administrative assistant. This meant that I made sure that everyone wrote down their homework in their assignment notebook. I liked this job because it was fairly easy and it had skills that I feel that I’m good at. These skills include being responsible and efficient. I made $400 a week for doing this job. For my bills, I had to pay a total of $174.25 every week. I have done a good job I think of managing my money. I know this because I have a lot of money leftover. Don’t worry, I got paid and paid bills in fake money. Something that I would have changed is that I would have tried to get a new job (even though I liked my job) but just to try something new. Something that I learned is that you should try to pay the lower price at first(when you don’t have so much money), and then work your way up to the nicer products. This way you feel more accomplished because you work your way up to the top.

How did your character’s role/situation in the game affect your ability to take care of yourself? 

I feel that my character’s situation was very fortunate and I was able to take care of myself well without getting into debt, having loans, and I was very healthy. This is because I had enough money to pay my bills and to get healthy food so I wouldn’t get sick from eating unhealthy food. In addition, I had leftover money that I could save for any other additional expenses I didn’t know would come up.

What aspects of your character’s life encouraged success?  What aspects of your character’s life brought about failure?  

The aspects that encouraged success in my characters life was that my character was very responsible, efficient, and helpful. I also got a good pay. The aspects that brought failure into my characters life was that I feel that I could have maybe tried and applied to a new job and try something new even if I was successful at my current job.

What attempts did you make to improve your character’s life?  How successful were these attempts? How difficult were those attempts and why?

I feel that I didn’t try to make any attempts to make my life better because it seemed to be going well. In the future, if I were to do this again, I would have tried to apply for a new job and try something new even if I was successful at my current job.

Write a list of what you learned about poverty from this activity.  

• It is very hard to get out of the cycle of poverty, once in it(because you need to catch up on bills and then you get even more behind due to needing to pay more bills)
• Life isn’t fair/Life is hard(some people have more success than others)
• It is hard to balance your money especially when you don’t have a lot(because you need to pay bills, yet still have some leftovers in case anything happens that you need money for)
• Sometimes people will help you if you need it(people gave other people’s loans so they could pay their bills on time)