Food has always played a significant role in my family. In Ethiopian culture, one of the best ways to show affection for someone is by feeding them a carefully handcrafted bite of food: a grusha. Some of my warmest memories are of eating at family gatherings, where my grandma feeds my brothers and me with her homemade injera, lovingly wrapping the perfect assortment of dishes into one delicious bite. For my dad, cooking and trying new foods became a life-long passion after growing up in his family’s restaurant. For my mom though, growing up with six younger brothers, just getting enough healthy food was often a struggle. She taught me that, although it was something that I, fortunately, enjoyed as a kid, hundreds of thousands of families lacked consistent access to food here in Los Angeles. Now, as a teenager, addressing food insecurity is one way I show my love for my community, including those struggling, just as my mom once did. I currently work with the City of Pasadena, assisting weekly in distributing food to the unhoused. Similarly, every year, I help collect and package food donations at my church for the holiday season. The church can deliver hundreds of meals for Thanksgiving and Christmas, helping to brighten the spirits of many Angelenos struggling to put food on their tables. Furthermore, this past year, I worked with a team of fellow students to raise enough donations to serve over 150 meals at a local food distribution center. Many of my classmates knew someone dealing with the ramifications of the pandemic; we all wanted to help in a way that surmounted the division our country faced. Every American can agree on the necessity of a proper meal. We reached out to friends, family, and local restaurants for support. The response was overwhelming. To make lasting impact, we established relationships between a local orchard and a food bank. All surplus fruit will be donated to the food bank thus providing an ongoing free source of healthy food. All of my efforts feel like a full-circle experience; being the type of person who helped out my mother's family. I am fully aware of the effect acts of kindness like mine have on people through the stories I heard about her childhood. Through my community engagement, I model what being a problem solver looks like so others can realize we each have the potential to make a lasting impact. The world is an imperfect place with many challenges and the path toward improvement lies in each of us being moved to action. I dream of a more equitable society, yet I know that before people can even begin to work to that end, they need to have full bellies, and that is where my work comes in. Feeding my community a taste of the same supportive affection that my family gives me, one grusha at a time, is an established part of who I will always be.

Food has always played a significant role in my family. In Ethiopian culture, one of the best ways to show affection for someone is by feeding them a carefully handcrafted bite of food: a grusha. Some of my warmest memories are of eating at family gatherings, where my grandma feeds my brothers and me with her homemade injera, lovingly wrapping the perfect assortment of dishes into one delicious bite. For my dad, cooking and trying new foods became a life-long passion after growing up in his family’s restaurant. For my mom though, growing up with six younger brothers, just getting enough healthy food was often a struggle. She taught me that, although it was something that I, fortunately, enjoyed as a kid, hundreds of thousands of families lacked consistent access to food here in Los Angeles. Now, as a teenager, addressing food insecurity is one way I show my love for my community, including those struggling, just as my mom once did. I currently work with the City of Pasadena, assisting weekly in distributing food to the unhoused. Similarly, every year, I help collect and package food donations at my church for the holiday season. The church can deliver hundreds of meals for Thanksgiving and Christmas, helping to brighten the spirits of many Angelenos struggling to put food on their tables. Furthermore, this past year, I worked with a team of fellow students to raise enough donations to serve over 150 meals at a local food distribution center. Many of my classmates knew someone dealing with the ramifications of the pandemic; we all wanted to help in a way that surmounted the division our country faced. Every American can agree on the necessity of a proper meal. We reached out to friends, family, and local restaurants for support. The response was overwhelming. To make lasting impact, we established relationships between a local orchard and a food bank. All surplus fruit will be donated to the food bank thus providing an ongoing free source of healthy food. All of my efforts feel like a full-circle experience; being the type of person who helped out my mother's family. I am fully aware of the effect acts of kindness like mine have on people through the stories I heard about her childhood. As a Boy Scout, I have learned much about citizenship and being an upstander. It is our responsibility to solve the problems we encounter as a society. However, we live in a polarized time when schools teach one set of norms and social media another. I look to my family, and at the reactions of those I serve, to create my norms. Although social media currently acts as a source of division, it has served as a mobilizing source for good with the power to influence behavior. Utilizing it as a resource for creating social norms that increase equity, inclusivity, and diversity is an effective strategy for cultural change. Through my community engagement, I model what being a problem solver looks like so others can realize we each have the potential to make a lasting impact. The world is an imperfect place with many challenges; addressing issues that are meaningful to us is an effective path toward improvement. I dream of a more equitable society, yet I know that before people can even begin to work to that end, they need to have full bellies, and that is where my work comes in. Feeding my community a taste of the same supportive affection that my family gives me, one grusha at a time, is an established part of who I am.

Food has always played a significant role in my family. In Ethiopian culture, one of the best ways to show affection for someone is by feeding them a carefully handcrafted bite of food: a grusha. Some of my warmest memories are of eating at family gatherings, where my grandma feeds my brothers and me with her homemade injera, lovingly wrapping the perfect assortment of dishes into one delicious bite. For my dad, cooking and trying new foods became a life-long passion after growing up in his family’s restaurant. For my mom though, growing up with six younger brothers, just getting enough healthy food was often a struggle. She taught me that, although it was something that I, fortunately, enjoyed as a kid, hundreds of thousands of families lacked consistent access to food here in Los Angeles. Now, as a teenager, addressing food insecurity is one way I show my love for my community, including those struggling, just as my mom once did. I currently work with the City of Pasadena, assisting weekly in distributing food to the unhoused. Similarly, every year, I help collect and package food donations at my church for the holiday season. The church can deliver hundreds of meals for Thanksgiving and Christmas, helping to brighten the spirits of many Angelenos struggling to put food on their tables. Furthermore, this past year, I worked with a team of fellow students to raise enough donations to serve over 150 meals at a local food distribution center. Many of my classmates knew someone dealing with the ramifications of the pandemic; we all wanted to help in a way that surmounted the division our country faced. Every American can agree on the necessity of a proper meal. We reached out to friends, family, and local restaurants for support. The response was overwhelming. To make lasting impact, we established relationships between a local orchard and a food bank. All surplus fruit will be donated to the food bank thus providing an ongoing free source of healthy food. All of my efforts feel like a full-circle experience; being the type of person who helped out my mother's family. I am fully aware of the effect acts of kindness like mine have on people through the stories I heard about her childhood. As a Boy Scout, I have learned much about citizenship and being an upstander. It is our responsibility to solve the problems we encounter as a society. However, we live in a polarized time when schools teach one set of norms and social media another. I look to my family, and at the reactions of those I serve, to create my norms. Although social media currently acts as a source of division, it has served as a mobilizing source for good with the power to influence behavior. Utilizing it as a resource for creating social norms that increase equity, inclusivity, and diversity is an effective strategy for cultural change. Through my community engagement, I try to model what being a problem solver looks like so that others can realize we each have the potential to make a lasting impact. The world is an imperfect place with many challenges, however, by addressing issues that are meaningful to each of us, we can work toward impactful improvement. I dream of a more equitable society, yet I know that before people can even begin to work to that end, they need to have full bellies, and that is where my work comes in. Giving my community a taste of the same supportive affection that my family gives me, one grusha at a time, is an established part of who I am.