Vienna Teens Win Grant For Service Project Addressing Childhood Hunger

VIENNA, VA — For food insecure students, it may be uncertain where they will get their next meal outside of school. Two Vienna teens are being recognized for their efforts to address food insecurity among children.

Kilmer Middle School student Juliet Lee and George C. Marshall High School 10th grader Jonah Lee received a Sodexo Stop Hunger Foundation Youth Grant through Youth Service America to complete a community service project addressing hunger. Their event, Tiny Feet, Big Impact: Fun Run to Fight Youth Hunger, will be held on April 26.

The Lee siblings are among 45 young leaders across the U.S. receiving grants for projects with an ultimate goal of ending childhood hunger. Grant recipients will work on the goal through awareness, service, advocacy and philanthropic activities. The grant recipients' programs are part of Global Youth Service Day from April 25 to 27.

"Helping and supporting these youth grantees - ordinary people that make themselves extraordinary - brings the Stop Hunger Foundation closer to its objective of working toward zero hunger in the U.S.," said Roxanne Moore, executive director of the Sodexo Stop Hunger Foundation. "By investing in their efforts on [Global Youth Service Day], we hope to ignite the passion in other young people to join the fight against child hunger."

The Tiny Feet, Big Impact: Fun Run to Fight Youth Hunger event will bring together participants aged 4 to 12 at Open Door Presbyterian Church in Herndon. Participants are asked to donate two or more food donations, which will go toward weekend meal packs being assembled for food insecure students at Coates Elementary School in Herndon. Each meal pack will provide 10 essential food items with two days worth of breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks.

The two teens have worked on other service projects with the Fairfax Community Emergency Response Team, Ronald McDonald House, Kids Give Back, The Lamb Center, Feed My Starving Children and Open Door Presbyterian Church. At Fairfax County Public Schools, where the teens attend school, an estimated 36 percent of students qualified for free and reduced price lunch as of fall 2024. Feeding America says one in five children face hunger in America.

Youth can sign up and find more information about the fun run online.

Patch has partnered with Feeding America since 2020 to help raise awareness in our local communities of hunger, a persistent national problem exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Feeding America, which supports 200 food banks and 60,000 local meals programs across the country, estimates that nearly 34 million people, including 9 million children — about 1 in 6 Americans — are living with food insecurity. This is a Patch social good project; Feeding America receives 100 percent of donations. Find out how you can donate in your community or find a food pantry near you.