At the market, we believe that our youth are key stakeholders to solving the critical and silent issue of hunger in our communities. This is why we take every opportunity possible to connect with them and hear what they have to say.
I spent the morning of Hunger Action Day visiting the future … better known as the Bonney Lake High School National Honor Society. They hosted me as a guest speaker and these 3 officers stayed behind with their advisor, Dasha Berry, to talk about volunteering opportunities.
I’m a hopeful believer that this generation of youth is the one that will grow up and blow our minds. Their resiliency, flexibility, and perspective gained through the pandemic and subsequent national upheaval will deliver great change and wisdom that can only come from great challenge and loss.
And because I knew I was dealing with greatness this morning, I told them that I was happy to have them volunteer their time in the traditional sense … but was wondering if they’d volunteer their brain trust and join my team for a much bigger project. You see, I’m deeply troubled knowing that teens are silently suffering in our community right now … with many things, but hunger is on that list. And having hunger on that list is not something I’m willing to accept. With the help of the future on my side, I’m anticipating we can solve this problem for good.
We agreed on a couple big truths today as the foundation of our ongoing work…
more youth in our community than we could ever realize are suffering from food insecurity
sometimes adults have concepts for solutions for hunger that don’t always work for the end user. (In this case a high school student.) So designing a solution to end hunger for teens will require the filter and perspective of other teens.
that the result of this project might not be what we expect it to be, so embrace the unexpected
that shame is our biggest opponent in this silent battle
Thank you BLHS NHS, for an inspiring morning. I can’t wait for our next meeting! To the future!
-Stacey