When Kids Can Make a Difference became a program of iEARN in 2010, it was clear from the start that the missions of the two organizations were a fit. As we explored how KIDS' resources like the Finding Solutions to Hunger Guide could be used to enhance iEARN food security and hunger-related projects, excitement about the partnership grew. And, then, as is always the case in iEARN, some creative teachers came along and created the real magic.

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It was a cold February morning at Veterans’ Memorial Elementary, and I stood in the school kitchen with both my gloved hands submerged in a five-gallon bucket of cubed pickles. I grabbed them from the briny depths by the fistful and deposited them in a cluster of neatly arranged, four ounce cups. Nearby, my colleagues Erin and Grace chopped pickled daikon radishes into bite-sized coins. It was Pickle Pioneer Day, an event of our own creation, and we were hustling to prepare samples for the entire student body before lunchtime.

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The Tohono O’odham Nation sits in the heart of the Sonoran Desert. The “Desert People,” the English translation of Tohono O’odham, have survived by living in this arid region for 10,000 years. Like the Israeli and African farmers of recent generations, the Tohono O’odham people have historically been able to grow nutritious and sustainable food in the harsh desert land using flood-based farming techniques and cultivating crops well-adapted to the climate such as tepary beans, squash and 60-day corn. They are creating miracles in the desert.

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