Local Hero: Student Starts Project To Help Feed Foster Families

CLEARWATER, FL — Clearwater student Samantha Kopec was awarded a $10,000 grant from the Be More Fund by the National Society of High School Scholars for her world betterment project.

Kopec’s project, Feeding the Fosters, helps foster parents focus on what matters most. Licensed foster parents’ hands are full, between creating emotional bonds, helping with homework, providing transportation and more. With little time for making meals, this nonprofit helps foster parents feed their families.

In just one year, more than 1,500 volunteers served 35 foster families, cooking 250 individual meals each night.

Kopec is a senior at Tarpon Springs High School.

The Be More Fund was created this year to acknowledge the positive, future-focused work that students, young professionals and educators are doing. Through the program, 40 people took part in a virtual judged competition, the Be More-a-thon, where they presented their projects. Ten winners were selected to each receive a $10,000 grant based on their professional presentation of a creative and viable plan to make the world a better, more equitable place.

"The talent we saw in this program was extraordinary. They weren't competing just to win a prize; they were competing so they could earn resources to fuel their passion projects and support world betterment," said NSHSS President and Co-Founder James Lewis. "Everyone involved in the competition, including our noted judges and mentors, recognized these high-achieving participants as the world's future leaders. We're honored to support their work."

The winning submissions included inventive solutions to pollution and climate change, world hunger, mental health problems, declining bee populations, pandemic research, and access to education. Judges looked for creativity and uniqueness, impact and sustainability, value and potential, and the WOW factor when evaluating the presentations.