{"id":16847,"date":"2019-05-07T22:33:19","date_gmt":"2019-05-08T05:33:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=16847"},"modified":"2019-05-07T22:33:19","modified_gmt":"2019-05-08T05:33:19","slug":"meet-3-inspiring-teens-feeding-a-better-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=16847","title":{"rendered":"Meet 3 Inspiring Teens Feeding A Better Future"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n
\n
By Laura Knutson<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n

At least for three teens who are looking to scale big ideas into big impact.<\/p>\n

When we launched the\u00a0General Mills Feeding Better Futures Scholars Program<\/a>\u00a0last year, our goal was to support young people who were making a difference in how we feed the world. They\u2019re our future, after all. We were humbled by the\u00a0innovative work<\/a>\u00a0young people across the nation were jumpstarting in their communities \u2013 and this year was no different.<\/p>\n

In January, we once again asked the next generation for examples of their do-good work in hunger relief, food waste reduction and sustainable agriculture.<\/p>\n

Three inspiring teens rose to the top:<\/p>\n

Kenzie Hinson<\/strong>\u00a0has given away 600,000 pounds of food to families in need, organizing her food pantry like a grocery store to preserve \u201cshopper\u201d dignity.\u00a0Ugo Angeletti<\/strong>\u00a0designed a free organic waste collection service in his community, educating kids about the benefits of composting. And\u00a0Bradley Ferguson<\/strong>\u00a0turned an American Legion post into a \u201cvictory garden\u201d to feed homeless veterans.<\/p>\n

Now, the really fun part. Our grand prize winner will receive $50,000 and industry mentorship to help take their idea to the next level.<\/p>\n

Who should it be? Well, you get to decide\u2026<\/p>\n

Watch Kenzie\u2019s, Ugo\u2019s and Bradley\u2019s stories before casting your vote at\u00a0FeedingBetterFutures.com.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Mackenzie \u201cKenzie\u201d Hinson, 14,\u00a0Make A Difference Pantry<\/em>\u00a0(Mount Olive, North Carolina)<\/strong><\/p>\n

At just 10 years old, Hinson took a leap from volunteering at local food pantries to being the director of her own nonprofit, the\u00a0Make a Difference Food Pantry<\/a>. First established as a grocery store where families in surrounding communities could access quality food with dignity, today, the MAD Pantry has evolved to much more. From a mobile pantry that delivers fresh produce and hot meals to senior citizens monthly, to a seasonal food assistance program that helps prevent kids from going hungry during spring break, Kenzie and her team are stopping hunger one meal, one family at a time. To date, Hinson and the MAD Pantry have served more than 418,000 people and given away 600,000 pounds of food.<\/p>\n

Ugo Angeletti, 19,\u00a0back2earth<\/em>\u00a0(Miami, Florida)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Surprised by the amount of organic material in a typical family\u2019s weekly garbage haul \u2013 including fruit rinds, egg shells and coffee grounds \u2013 Angeletti landed on a quest: to keep food waste out of landfills. That\u2019s when he developed\u00a0back2earth<\/a>, a nonprofit organization providing an organic waste collection service to the residents of South Miami, Coconut Grove and, soon, Key Biscayne. Through the organization, Angeletti has diverted more than 11,000 pounds of food waste in the Miami area, and back2earth also expanded its business model to educate kids on the issue. Within the last year, he and his team have given more than 70 interactive presentations to teach kids the benefits of composting.<\/p>\n

Bradley Ferguson, 18,\u00a0Post Crashers and Mustangs Against Hunger<\/em>\u00a0(Atlantic City, New Jersey)<\/strong><\/p>\n

A senior at Mainland Regional High School in New Jersey, Ferguson was inspired to create solutions for food insecurity in his hometown and started two organizations in service of his mission. Established in 2014, Post Crashers is a service-learning organization that offers meals to homeless veterans via a home-grown victory garden built by Ferguson\u2019s team. His second organization, Mustangs Against Hunger, was established in 2017 and is a high school food pantry that distributes thousands of pounds of non-perishable food to hundreds of families in need.<\/p>\n

Cast your vote for Kenzie, Ugo or Bradley at\u00a0FeedingBetterFutures.com<\/a>\u00a0through May 13, 2019. Then, follow along on\u00a0Facebook<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Instagram<\/a>\u00a0as we host all three finalists at General Mills world headquarters on May 20 and announce our grand prize winner.<\/strong><\/p>\n

With an expected nine billion people on the planet in a few decades, we know our current food cycle isn\u2019t sustainable. And who better to help us than the change-makers of tomorrow?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Laura Knutson At least for...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education","category-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16847"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16847\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16848,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16847\/revisions\/16848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}