🍽️🔥 Feeding Change: Youth Leading the Fight Against Hunger
🎒 An Afterschool Leadership Lab for Ages 15–18
🧠 Informed Minds. Courageous Hearts. Systems-Level Impact.
Teens don’t just want to learn about food insecurity—they want to dismantle the systems that cause it.
Feeding Change is a student-led afterschool program where high schoolers explore the intersections of food justice, poverty, equity, and sustainability. They’ll use research, design thinking, and civic action to create bold solutions that directly impact their schools, neighborhoods, and beyond.
🧭 How It Works
Each week, students move from learning to action through:
🌎 Systems + Equity Analysis: Dive into how hunger intersects with housing, income, racism, climate, and policy—both locally and globally.
⚙️ Human-Centered Design: Use the Design Thinking model (Empathize → Define → Ideate → Prototype → Test → Reflect → Launch) to tackle food insecurity in their communities.
🗳️ Civic Engagement & Advocacy: Learn how to organize food justice campaigns, write policy briefs, present to decision-makers, and influence systemic change.
🤝 Youth-Led Project Teams: Students form action squads to co-lead initiatives with real-world outcomes—supported by facilitators and community mentors.
🛠️ Sample Projects + Campaigns
Students create bold, justice-driven projects such as:
🥫 Equity-Based Food Drive Redesigns
Move beyond canned goods—design food drives that meet cultural and nutritional needs with dignity and choice.
🧑🍳 Community Fridge or Free Pantry Projects
Launch, stock, and maintain local free food access points in schools, shelters, or neighborhoods.
📊 Food Access Mapping & Advocacy
Use GIS and data collection to map food deserts, then advocate for solutions like mobile markets, school pantries, or transportation access.
📢 Policy in Action
Write letters, give public comment, or work with city councils and school boards to implement free meals, anti-food waste laws, or local farming incentives.
🎥 Storytelling for Justice
Create short documentaries, zines, or social media campaigns that center lived experiences of food insecurity and call others to action.
🎉 Feeding Change Youth Summit
At the end of the program, students lead the Feeding Change Youth Summit, where they:
🎤 Pitch their solutions to elected officials, community leaders, and educators
📦 Host service events like meal box assembly, fridge stocking, or donation stations
🎨 Exhibit campaigns, maps, and media they created
🎓 Receive project certification, service hours, and access to future leadership opportunities
It’s not just a showcase. It’s a platform for long-term impact.
🎁 Tools for Impact
Participants receive a Feeding Change Toolkit, including:
📁 Digital Portfolio Template for college apps and leadership resumes
📢 Campaign Starter Kit: petition templates, media guides, event scripts
📚 Curated Reading List on food justice, equity, and youth-led change
🧾 Service Learning Documentation + Leadership Certificate
🔗 Access to internships, scholarships, and youth leadership networks
🌟 What Youth Walk Away With
🥗 Deep Understanding: Knowledge of the root causes and systems behind hunger and food access.
💡 Leadership Tools: Skills in organizing, advocacy, communication, and collaboration.
🗣️ Powerful Voice: Confidence to speak out, challenge norms, and influence policy.
🤝 Equity Lens: A justice-focused mindset that centers dignity and inclusion.
🌍 Ongoing Impact: Real projects, real change, and the tools to keep going.
✨ Because Hunger Isn’t a Mystery—It’s a Matter of Justice
Feeding Change empowers youth to tackle hunger at its roots—with compassion, innovation, and the courage to lead.
🍎 Their ideas.
🗳️ Their voice.
🔥 Their moment.
Let the movement begin.