West Middle School Student Wins Giant's Essay Contest

Mel Brennan, a 7th grader at , won $750 for his ideas about addressing hunger in Giant's Black History Month essay contest.

"Mel's essay was one of the shortest submitted to me," Mel's English teacher Marian Davis said.  "I thought his idea of teaching a skill such as gardening to help with the hungry was better than providing a handout.  He also provided a fair amount of poverty statistics to back up his ideas."

Davis made the essay a class assignment and then encouraged students to submit the essays to the contest. She said she had 50 students submit essays to the contest.

The contest was open to students in sixth, seventh and eighth grades in Maryland, Delaware and Washington, D.C. The essay theme was: "Making a difference—What can you do to help fight hunger in your community?"

According to a representative, essays were judged on originality, creativity and adherence to the essay topic. Two winners were selected from each grade level and winners received a cash award.

"Mel is quiet and studious," Davis said.  "He is inquisitive and shows interest in reading and writing.  He seems to like to sit back and observe but will speak up when he wants."

Laurel Brennan, Mel's mom, said that in his typical humble fashion, Mel had a hard time believing that his essay was good enough to win.

"When he heard the news, he just said, 'It wasn't long enough to win...it wasn't good enough,'" Laurel said.

"Mel wrote about the idea that everybody can do something to fight hunger, even if it’s little tasks, the cumulative results will be that poverty can be decreased," Laurel said.  "He suggested that if we all had a garden and shared our extra food, or helped in a food kitchen, that all together the efforts would make a big difference." 

Laurel Brennan said that the experience has provided an opportunity for her family to become more active in giving back. Brennan and her husband encourage their children to split their money in three ways: spend, save and give to charity.

"We were talking about how to use the charity portion of the money he won in the contest," Laurel said. "I told him I would match whatever he decided to spend on charity."

The family has discussed shopping for food to donate, or making meals and serving them at local churches and kitchens.

"We have discussed that this is like a jumping-off step, a chance to do more than we've done as a family." Laurel said. "We can do more too. This experience has provided a good focus for family discussion."

"He is a great kid and I am happy to see him get the attention he deserves," Davis said.