Students toted bags packed with produce seed packets to campus and eagerly asked their classmates, "How many did you bring?" The La Sierra Academy history classroom had sacks of seeds piled in corners. It was a competition between classes, but a competition with a wonderful humanitarian focus.

Heather Miller, who works with Students in Free Enterprise at La Sierra University, shares how the "seed project" got started: "A team of people from the La Sierra University church, including two LSU SIFE students, made a trip to Solusi University in Zimbabwe at the end of January. According to SIFE member Christian Tirado, while they were there, some of the group visited the Adventist elementary school on the university campus and saw that the children could really be helped by improving their garden production with more seeds and fertilizer. This would help the children who work the gardens earn their tuition, provide much-needed food, and possibly help earn a little money for their school by selling some of the produce to local families as well. As the group discussed this need after returning, the idea came up to ask other K-12 students here in the States to help with a 'kids-to-kids' challenge."

"We were very pleased and amazed by the results that were achieved on such a short notice by the La Sierra Academy students," said Tirado. "The 9,000 packets of seeds were more than any of us could have imagined. They're definitely going to make a difference for those kids over in Zimbabwe."

The seed drive is part of a larger farm rehabilitation project that the LSU church and the SIFE team are working on together.

Jon Gless, student association sponsor at LSA, explained how the project was implemented at the academy: "When Heather Miller called me about the need for seeds and the possibility of a class challenge, I discussed it with our principal, Cyril Connelly. We liked the idea. But the soonest we could announce it was on Tuesday, Feb. 19, just before worship, because Monday was a holiday. That gave our young people only three days to produce as many vegetable seed packets as possible by that Friday at 1:30 p.m. The amazing final count was: seniors, 4,191; sophomores, 3,203; juniors, 1,203; and freshmen, 288. The Lord and our students deserve the credit for their industry, creativity and success."