Refugees thank adoptive city by feeding hungry
People come to Fargo from places like Sudan
FARGO, N.D. — Maria Modi’s journey from South Sudan to a new life in Fargo included a stop at a refugee camp in Cairo. She and her seven siblings know what it is like to be hungry.
“My mother and father work 12hour shifts and still sometimes we don’t get enough food at home to last us a week,” said Modi, a Fargo North High School senior who plans to study music and theater in college next year.
She and a group of other students, most from poor refugee families, spent the Thursday before Thanksgiving handing out turkey and cranberries to the hungry of Fargo, which welcomed their arrival from places such as Nepal, Sudan and Liberia. The students, nearly all of whom qualify for free or reduced-price school lunches, recently opened a food pantry as part of the Legacy Children’s Foundation, a nonprofit that helps them earn diplomas while finding out what they’re good at doing.
“I come from a little, poor country,” said Fargo North sophomore Puja Chhertri, one of the food pantry organizers, whose family emigrated from Nepal. “There are people on the street there who are eating from garbage.”
The Legacy students have done numerous public service projects, including making and distributing hand-tied fleece blankets to the homeless, running a school carnival and helping at nursing homes and day care centers. This is their first attempt at feeding those in need.
“It’s about hungry kids serving hungry neighbors,” said Mary Jean Dehne, the group’s executive director.
The Legacy students have tabbed their operation K.I.D.S., for Kindness Is Doing Service. They order the food from the Great Plains Food Bank, stock the shelves, follow a budget and recruit others for food drives. Once a week, they hand out food from a garage in the city’s Golden Ridge section, which is home to many low-income families. They also deliver food to some homes.
Peter Saintal, 23, a second-generation refugee who went through the Legacy program and is now its president, said he “saw what poor looks like” when he returned to Haiti with his family three years ago. He said many people in Fargo would be surprised to learn they have neighbors who are suffering.
“I mean, there are people out there who don’t get meals or food,” Saintal said. “There’s a misconception out there that it’s only homeless people who need food, but that’s not it. There’s a lot of people who go hungry, whether they have a house or a car or whatever the case may be.”