Words by Smiley Team
With the chance to be featured on a 36-foot long trailer that travels throughout South Florida, students in Miami Dade, Broward, Monroe, and Palm Beach counties have the chance to enter the third annual 'Feeding Your Creativity' contest.
The contest was started by Feeding South Florida, the leading food insecurity aid in the area. Per their website, Feeding South Florida rescues 46 million pounds of food annually, serving 706,130 individuals in need of food assistance – 240,190 of whom are children and nearly 110,000 are older adults.
“We're excited to announce our third annual ‘Feed Your Creativity’ Art Competition that kicks off our ‘Summer Hunger Ends Here’ campaign,” said Sari Vatske, executive president of Feeding South Florida. “Participating in the art competition allows students to give a voice to nearly 200,000 children who go to bed hungry in South Florida.”
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The 'Summer Hunger Ends Here' campaign is an initiative to end hunger among youth who usually get most of their food while in school through free lunch and other programs.
“In South Florida alone, there are nearly 200,000 children who don’t know where they will get their next meal, and over 500,000 who rely on free or reduced meals during the school year,” they stated in a Feeding South Florida press release.
On top of being featured on the 36-foot trailer, the “Feeding Your Creativity” winner will also have their artwork featured prominently at one of the main Feeding South Florida warehouses.
Beyond first place, there’s also the People's Choice award, awarded for social media interaction, the Youth Ambassador award, given by the Feeding South Florida kid’s council, the Orange Ribbon award for the piece that judges most believe reflects ending hunger, and the School Spirit award for the school with the most submissions.
Feeding South Florida wants to impart the importance of food beyond nourishment with this year’s theme.
“This year, the theme is ‘food is community,’ and we want to make sure that children understand and our community understands that food, not only do we need food to live, but it’s what brings us together,” said Paco Velez, Feeding South Florida’s CEO, told Channel 7 News Miami.
The winner of the contest will be announced in late May 2022 and the trailer will be unveiled in the summer.
DONATE: You can donate to Feeding South Florida to help them continue their mission.
VOLUNTEER: The nonprofit is looking for volunteers to help them at their 'Food + Fund' drives.
