Posts Tagged ‘no kid hungry’

A Taste of Youth Service

Thursday, April 25th, 2013

Chef Remmi Smith

Hi, I’m Remmi of Cook Time with Remmi. I believe every young person can make a difference by doing what they love to do! I’ve always loved being in the kitchen; I was helping out when I was only 4 years old! Now at the age of 13, I have my own cooking show, Cook Time with Remmi, and I’m comfortable cooking for myself and my family.

I hope that my cooking show and the recipes on my website get kids excited about cooking because I believe that cooking at home can help you eat healthier and save money. It’s important that kids learn to eat and cook nutritious meals early so that these habits can stay with them as adults too! And, cooking is a lot of fun―I promise! I have always wanted to be a cook star….and so can you!

My passion for talking to other kids about how easy (and yummy!) cooking and eating nutritiously can be led me to become Sodexo’s first-ever Student Ambassador to Health and Nutrition! Sodexo provides education solutions to nearly 500 school districts nationwide. Their STOP Hunger program enables Sodexo communities, including employees, consumers, clients and suppliers to join together to make a difference and end hunger.

Thanks to Sodexo Foundation, I can reach way more kids and get them as excited about healthy cooking and eating as I am.

The No Kid Hungry campaign teaches families how to cook healthy, affordable meals.

With my Sodexo Foundation Youth Grant, I’m hosting the No Kid Hungry Food Classic – Be a C.H.E.F. on Global Youth Service Day. The event is on April 27th at Metro Appliances and More in Tulsa, OK, from 1:00 to 5:00 PM. I’ll be doing demos and cooking up some of my favorite dishes for you to sample, and I will be talking to everyone about the No Kid Hungry campaign!

We are also having Global Gardens at the event and they will be talking about how to grow your own garden too!

I couldn’t believe it when I found out that 1 in 5 children in the United States struggles with hunger. I want to help end childhood hunger, so I decided to use what I love to do to make a difference and raise awareness and funds for No Kid Hungry.

Along with connecting kids in need with nutritious food, the No Kid Hungry campaign teaches their families how to cook healthy, affordable meals – something I love to do!

If you live in the Tulsa area, you should definitely come by! Be sure to bring canned food or a monetary donation to support Community Food Bank of Eastern Oklahoma and No Kid Hungry. But even if you don’t live in my area, you can still get involved! Cook Time with Remmi has lots of healthy recipes and fun videos from my cooking show. Check out NoKidHungry2.org for fun ways to help end childhood hunger.

I’m so excited for April 27th – hope to see you all there

Chef Remmi Smith is Sodexo’s Student Ambassador for Health and Nutrition.

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Ways to Serve, No Foolin’!

Friday, March 29th, 2013

Bob Stern

April 1st is special for a number of reasons: April Fool’s Day; opening day for Major League Baseball; and now it’s officially recognized as the start of Sodexo Servathon!

Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley issued a formal proclamation this year, saluting Servathon and Sodexo’s important work fighting hunger in local communities.

Servathon is Sodexo’s largest employee engagement initiative in North America and around the world. Last year 40,000 employees in 35 countries got involved in the fight against hunger.

This year, I’m afraid the need is as great as ever. 50 million Americans, including more than 16 million children, don’t have enough to eat.

Since improving quality of life is important to Sodexo, it just makes sense that we ask employees to get involved in service projects in their communities to help fight hunger.

Volunteering at the Manna Food Center.

This year we’re asking employees to include youth in their service efforts too. I’ve found that today’s generation of youth is amazingly public-service oriented, and usually very eager to help those in need.

Involving kids also helps raise awareness around the issue of hunger, and helps ensure a strong pipeline of future leaders and volunteers in the fight against hunger. I encourage everyone to think about the young people in their life and find easy but effective ways for them to help out.

Earlier this week, my son, Elliott, joined me and several of my Sodexo colleagues at a volunteer event sponsored by PANG at Manna Food Center near our headquarters.

He’s done it before and he knows that poverty persists in every county and just about every school. My son is student teaching in a high school now, and he told me he has seen how hard it is for students to study when they are hungry. Having my son alongside me for Servathon was a special experience.

PANG, a Sodexo Employee Business Resource group, volunteering at Manna Food Center during Sodexo Servathon.

Need some thought-starters on how to mobilize youth to tackle the massive issue of hunger? Here are just a few simple ideas:

  • Block-out some time; whatever you can spare, minutes, hours or more and prepare or serve meals at a soup kitchen or sort food at a local food bank.
  • Take the No Kid Hungry Pledge, and ask young people in your life to take the pledge with you.
  • Raise funds or collect food to donate in your community.
  • Visit No Kid Hungry 2 for cool ideas on how to involve youth.

You can even check out Sodexo’s Servathon page for additional resources. And don’t forget to let us know what you’ve done, by sharing your Servathon story through our online survey.

Robert A. Stern is senior vice president and general counsel for Sodexo, Inc. and president of Sodexo Foundation, which supports innovative programs to help children and families in the United States who are at-risk of hunger.

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Sustaining the Cause

Wednesday, November 9th, 2011

Bob Stern, president of the Sodexo Foundation

A few weeks ago I attended the 2011 Conference of Leaders in Baltimore, hosted by Share Our Strength. I met a lot of extremely motivated individuals in the fight against hunger.  It was particularly gratifying to see Sodexo Chef Robert Murnan presented with an award for his outstanding work and leadership with Cooking Matters Omaha.

During the conference I also had an opportunity to preview a collaborative effort by Share Our Strength and YSA (Youth Service America) to develop a new online youth action center dubbed No Kid Hungry 2. It was developed with funding provided by the Sodexo Foundation and debuts on the first anniversary of No Kid Hungry. The site, which goes live today at NoKidHungry2.org, aims to engage youth in the national anti-hunger movement by encouraging and educating a new generation of passionate and dedicated young leaders who will advocate for this cause among their school peers and friends. 

No Kid Hungry 2 is feature and resource-rich, with two main sections: Kids Kick Hunger for those under 13 years old and Leaders Tackle Hunger for ages 13 and above. Age-appropriate content and resources will be posted to each section, enabling young people to organize volunteer activities, launch advocacy efforts and raise awareness in their schools and local neighborhoods about childhood hunger in America.

A look at the new nokidhungry2.org website. Click on the picture to check it out.

The site’s integration of social media tools offers powerful means for connecting young people all over the U.S., while also providing them with the ideas and resources they need to be effective change agents in their own communities. I like to think of No Kid Hungry 2 as a “brain trust of youth hunger champions.”

In opening his speech at Conference of Leaders, Share Our Strength chairman and CEO, Billy Shore used a humorous anecdote about his six year old son warning a fellow beach toddler about the temporal nature of sand castles, observing that they are never there in the morning. Shore went on to tell the audience that unlike those unsustainable structures, Share Our Strength, with the help of its many supporters, has put into place a solid foundation built around multiple platforms guaranteeing that its work and efforts will endure well beyond the next sunrise.

No Kid Hungry 2 is just one such platform upon which the work of fighting childhood hunger will advance. It will be instrumental in helping bring food to, as Shore put it, “the most vulnerable and the least responsible for the position they are in” – children.

Please share the link for No Kid Hungry 2 and empower the young people in your life to uplift their peers.

Robert A. Stern is senior vice president and general counsel for Sodexo, Inc. and president of the Sodexo Foundation, which supports innovative programs to help children and families in the United States who are at-risk of hunger. 

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