When I was 11 years old, I began volunteering at the Harvey Kornblum Jewish Food Pantry. I was young, but started to understand the needs of my community. From then on, my mom and I spent the next 4 years working there, putting in between 100 and 150 hours. This was at a critical time in the community, and I watched as the pantry grew from feeding 10 families per day to 50 families per day. I watched as our parking lot could no longer fit the amount of cars with families seeking daily food assistance. But most important of all, I encountered poor leadership. Like any good, American company, these geniuses decided that we needed another manager. On her first day, she concluded that we could no longer accept donations of pastries because they were unhealthy for our clients. I later found out that she had trouble opening her eyes to the exponentially increasing amount of families coming to the pantry and the decrease of the amount of food in the pantry. I told myself, “That’s not right” and started picking up day-old bread from bakeries.
At the age of 15, I talked to almost every single food retailer in the St. Louis area and was met with much rejection and humiliation. Despite my young age, I kept on pushing and became successful. Whole Foods, Costco, Einsteins, and the Donut Palace all agreed to donate on a weekly basis. The first time I went to Whole Foods, I could not believe the amount of perishables that were going to be thrown away had it not been for me. It turned out that their donation filled the entire SUV. I immediately took it to the food pantry, and the first thing the manager said to me was, “Do we have quantity control?” Clearly, the Harvey Kornblum Jewish Food Pantry has serious leadership issues. This has definitely shaped me as a leader, so I evaluated the need in the community and I decided to go downtown to the homeless shelters where I knew that people were seriously hungry. I was met with warm hearts, thankful people, and sad stories of the entrance into homelessness. From then on, I spent about 6 hours each weekend saving over 3,000lbs of perishables.
Then, I attended HOBY, and my life changed. I represented my school and the Missouri seminar and went on to represent Missouri at the World Leadership Congress. The people there cared about today's youth and our potential instead of what we take away from society. In his trip to Africa, Hugh O'Brian was asked the question by Dr. Albert Schweitzer, “What are you going to do about it?” I was asked the same and was motivated to help others. I created St. Louis Food Rescue 2 weeks after I returned home, and many great things happened. The skills I developed from this project shaped my character and leadership qualities. Constant communication is the essential aspect of being a successful leader. Being president of STLFR has taught me how to overcome group work problems and has led to the success of St. Louis Food Rescue. I will not stop giving back until I am satisfied that every person has their basic human needs fulfilled.
The mission of St. Louis Food Rescue is to save perishables that would have been discarded from local food retailers and immediately deliver them to the organizations most in need, and to inspire and motivate young people. We have daily collections with our food donors. While this may seem very similar to other organizations, such as Operation Food Search, we are different in every single way possible.
The first is that we operate on the weekends and evenings when other organizations refuse to work. These organizations, whether they are collection agencies or food pantries, don’t seem to understand that hunger is a 24 hour problem. They come up with excuses like, “All nonprofit organizations are closed after 5pm, or they are not open on the weekends.” These organizations also have poor leadership, because I have found multiple homeless shelters and food pantries that have an open door policy 24 hours a day. Another aspect that separates us from the crowd is that we are 100% teenage volunteer run. It is necessary that we, as members of our community, invest in our youth to ensure a bright future. Although teenagers might not be as experienced and professional as adults, we must teach them about the needs in our community or the next generation will encounter serious problems. Involving teenagers is due to the inspiration of HOBY, which not only motivated me to create a nonprofit organization, but taught me to invest in today's youth because of the following dismal facts: only 37% of adults believe today's youth, once grown, will make the world a better place. A 61% majority of adults are convinced that today's youth face a crisis in their values and morals, that they are disrespectful, unfriendly, and undisciplined. Only 20% of young people perceive that adults in the community value youth. An overwhelming 93% majority of young people believe they can individually and collectively make a difference in their communities, but fewer than 1 in 5 civic organizations across the country are extensively involving teenagers in their work.
The final reason that we are unlike other organizations is that we have outstanding leadership. We don’t sit around like other organizations and talk about useless stuff. We don’t say “no” donations. We don’t say no to teenage volunteers. People don’t realize that people die every single day from hunger in our community, and the answer to that is a constant fight. That is St. Louis Food Rescue, and every single person in the organization is more passionate than almost every single person in the world.
The results that St. Louis Food Rescue has achieved are stellar. My organization was, is, and will be an excellent solution to the constant problem of food waste and hunger. All involved have grown a need to help others, and community service will be a part of everyone’s life as they move on to college. As vice president Eric Engel puts it, “It seemed like a part of me was missing when I went to school on Monday without going to the Sunday night collection.” I felt the same way when this happened to me. We had, for the first time, delegated other volunteers to pick up and deliver the food. This was not a one-time reaction; we see this quite often from volunteers who were simply unable to help out on certain days. However, involving teenagers is only part of my organization.
Every week, we save around 5,000lbs of perfectly good food and deliver it to homeless shelters and food pantries in need. The Salvation Army (O'Fallon) has been one of the most affected nonprofits. A year ago, their food pantry assisted 45 families per month. They currently feed over 650 families per month. The impact that we have made and continue to make on them is magnificent. Before we supported them, their food pantry could barely keep up with the need. Often times, they would run out of certain items. Almost never would they have fresh baked goods; fresh produce and dairy products were unheard of. The food that we bring them gives them enough provisions to distribute throughout the day to families seeking aid. It also gives them the opportunity to cook some at their emergency shelter which is currently at maximum capacity of 32 people. In the words of the manager, “We do not know where we would be without St. Louis Food Rescue.” We have been on FOX2 news twice.
This is not the only organization that we bring food to on a weekly basis. The New Life Evangelistic Homeless Center (Downtown) houses some of the neediest people in our community. Every Saturday and Monday night when we deliver food to them, they give us the opportunity to see where our food goes. The appreciation that the thousands of homeless people lying on the street give us is exceptional. They are bullied every day by the large numbers of people who walk by them and ignore their presence. They are all very thankful that a group of teenagers is sacrificing their time to help others. For the people involved and I, this is the rewarding part: making a real difference.
Sometimes volunteers wonder why they are up at 11:00pm on weeknights delivering food. However, as soon as they see where the food is going, the thought of time vanishes and the appreciation of how well they have spent this time quickly takes over.
Since I started picking up food two years ago, I have always had one dream: to obtain a truck. This dream started out due to the large amounts of food that we receive every week. Since I created the organization, I sought to involve others, and this unfortunately required them to use their vehicles. Many times, their SUVs and minivans do not offer enough space, and sometimes we run out of space. The future of STLFR is clear; we want to keep doing what we are doing and not rely on volunteers to bring their own vehicles. This has resulted in many potential volunteers not being able to assist us because they do not have large enough vehicles to put our food in. The other benefit of a truck is that it allows more than a driver and passenger to fit in the cab.
We are also seeking to acquire new food donors. It is very likely that the food that they donate would simply be too much for normal SUVs. Therefore, a truck with a king cab and extended bed would be ideal for us, such as an F-250. Unfortunately, new trucks this size cost between $30,000 and $50,000. We do not have those kind of funds currently, but there are many other used trucks that cost $10,000. If STLFR were to win the $10,000 grant, we would use the money to purchase a truck. On the other hand, if we were selected as the grand prize winner, we would use the money to buy a new truck. A new truck would ensure the future of the organization: it would be much less likely to break, would last longer than a $10,000 truck, and would solve almost all of our problems. We would leave at least $10,000 dollars in our bank account for the insurance of the truck, gas, maintenance, etc. The rest would go to the homeless shelters and food pantries that we serve.
The New Life Homeless Center is in the process of turning an empty building into a place where homeless people can go to receive basic dental work and health care. They are in need of all the money that we can give to them to complete this project, and as always, are in need of donations so they can continue to offer assistance to thousands of homeless families.
Mission Statement: The mission of Hugs for Ghana is to share love, hope, and confidence with Ghana’s youngest citizens so that they can have the ability to make positive contributions in their own communities. Led by a committed group of students, the organization strives to impact communities in Ghana by using and reaching youth, as young people are catalysts of social change. By empowering both volunteers and Ghanaian youth, positive contributions can be made to communities. By receiving a donation or benefiting from an original Hugs for Ghana project, children will be positively impacted and encouraged. 
The Health Intiative: The Health Initiative was a project dedicated to the collecting and distribution of medical supplies to Ghanaian health facilities. One major focus was to raise funds in order to buy and further distribute basic medical supplies, such as thermometers and blood pressure cuffs. In Ghana, for example, 300 thermometers cost about $25.00 each. Therefore, the support of Hugs for Ghana through the Health Initiative helps in having healthy children and healthy Ghanaian communities.
Teddy Bears for Ghana: Raised thousands of teddy bears which were eventually hand delivered to children in Ghana, West Africa.
