Mableton College Scholar Receives Sodexo Foundation Grant to Fight Childhood Hunger on Global Youth Service Day 2014

Mableton – Kenishia Richardson, a college student from Mableton, has been awarded a Sodexo Foundation Youth Grant through YSA (Youth Service America). The grant will support Kenishia and the Vita Nova Youth Organization in leading a community service project that addresses the issue of childhood hunger.

Service activities will take place on Global Youth Service Day, April 11-13, 2014 at the New Life Church located at 340 Community Rd. in Mableton, - the largest volunteering and service event in the world. We will be making a Community Garden. Objective is to teach responsibility to youth and children of the community and to teach the importance of Healthy positive choices while teaching a lifelong skill. 

We will also involve children and youth in a meal preparation class for beginners teaching nutrition and how to prepare easy, healthy meals without dangerous cooking materials while promoting independence. Also showing children healthy eating options regarding dinner or lunch time. This Vita Nova Youth Project will hold its grand finale by sponsoring a “Walk for Ending Hunger” at the Floyd Silver Comet Trail bench area. Objective is displaying healthy alternatives to a better lifestyle (exercise & food).

We will meet and talk about healthy snacks and exercise and how it correlates to boosting self-esteem and confidence. We will enjoy healthy snacks at the end in the picnic area.

One-hundred grants of up to $500 were awarded to youth-led projects that aim to reduce childhood hunger in local communities throughout America. Grantees educate and mobilize their peers around the issue, creating solutions to end childhood hunger.

Sodexo Foundation Youth Grants empower young people as problem-solvers working to improve the well-being and quality of life for their generation.

Richardson joins millions of others young people around the world to celebrate Global Youth Service Day, April 11 to 13, 2014. Now in its 27th year, Global Youth Service Day recognizes the positive impact that young people have on their communities 365 days a year. As the largest service event in the world, Global Youth Service Day is celebrated in more than 135 countries and all 50 states.

“As communities are challenged by the reduction in public resources, it makes our vision of a hunger-free America more difficult to attain,” said Robert A. Stern, chair, Sodexo Foundation. “Each Sodexo Foundation Youth Grantee is doing their part to tackle an issue that directly affects one in five of their peers. It will be through their actions and ingenuity that we will one day see an end to childhood hunger in America.”

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YSA (Youth Service America) improves communities by increasing the number and diversity of young people, ages 5 to 25, serving in substantive roles. Through campaigns, grant programs, resource development and training opportunities, YSA promotes a global culture of engaged youth committed to a lifetime of service, learning, leadership and achievement. As a campaign of YSA and the largest service event in the world, Global Youth Service Day (GYSD) celebrates and mobilizes the millions of children and youth who improve their communities each day of the year through service. GYSD 2013 will be held April 11-13 in more than 135 countries on six continents. For more information, visit www.YSA.org and www.GYSD.org.

Sodexo in North America

Sodexo, Inc. (www.sodexoUSA.com), leading Quality of Life services company in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, delivers On-site Services in Corporate, Education, Health Care, Government, and Remote Site segments, as well as Benefits and Rewards Services and Personal and Home Services. Sodexo, Inc., headquartered in Gaithersburg, Md., funds all administrative costs for the Sodexo Foundation (www.SodexoFoundation.org), an independent charitable organization that, since its founding in 1999, has made more than $22 million in grants to end childhood hunger in America. Visit the corporate blog at blogs.sodexousa.com.