Providing hope and nourishment to homeless and low-income populations
Author: Braeden
When I'm not riding my bike, skateboarding or playing video games, I'm doing homework or attending events for my nonprofit.
My non-profit is called 3B Brae's Brown Bags or 3B for short. A sub-project of this non-profit is called 3B Ripples and they are student chapters.
My ongoing mission is not only to feed people today, but to raise awareness about the problems of food insecurity and poverty, and empower and inspire youth across the nation to become part of the solution.
The Kohl’s Cares Scholarship Program awards youth all over the country for caring. It kind of seems silly but in an awesome way. Shouldn’t everyone choose to care about everyone else no matter what? I can’t tell you how grateful I am to have been nominated for the scholarship by multiple people and also how great it feels to have been chosen as a national scholarship winner.
Kohl’s has this year awarded more than 2,500 winners nationwide with nearly $400,000 in scholarships for higher education and prizes. The winners were chosen from more than 32,000 nominees nationwide, and selected for the positive impact their volunteer efforts have on the community.
The scholarship is for $10,000 and it will go into a college savings plan that my Mom set up for me. They are also going to contribute $1,000 to Brae’s Brown Bags which is very generous.
Thank you to Kohl’s and thank you to the people who nominated me. This is an honor. I can’t wait to tell my friends when I go back to school. I’ll be in middle school this year at Gauger-Cobbs.
You can read about other Kohl’s Cares winners in these stories:
Over the weekend I went with my parents into Washington, DC and North Bethesda for the STOP Hunger Scholars Celebration with the Sodexo Foundation. We took the train Sunday morning and had a dinner Sunday night and then a great big huge dinner Monday night. There were over 1,000 people there on Monday night!
I met Ellie Krieger, she is a Food Network chef and has her own healthy eating TV show. She was very nice. She interviewed me up on stage along with Lorna Donatone, she is the COO of Sodexo.
Five scholars across the nation were chosen for their service work pertaining to ending hunger. The Stephen J. Brady STOP Hunger Scholars receive a $5,000 scholarship for their education as well as a matching grant for the hunger charity of their choice. So very generous!
We all shared our #EndingHunger dreams and this was mine, that everyone would have access to healthy food and clean water regardless of their financial situation. Make sure you download your own selfie sign so you can share your big dream for ending hunger. I think everyone who attended the dinner and the other four scholars all feel the same way. It was so nice to meet everyone. Amazing people with BIG dreams who are doing really awesome things.
The Sodexo Foundation, and their pal Corey, created a super awesome video where all five scholars got to say hi to each other and talk about what they are doing in their communities to help end hunger and provide hunger relief. To Sophie Bernstein, Caroline Ford, Kylee McCumber and Isaac McFarland, I’m so humbled to have met you and very proud to call you my friends.
Click to watch our STOP Hunger Scholar Video
The couple days I had in Washington, DC were just so fun. And the people at the Marriot were SO NICE TO US! They brought us mints, three mints every day. Their pool was so nice, I loved it, I wish i could have gone and swam for longer. The woman who checked us in asked about Brae’s Brown Bags and she was so emotional when I told her and my Mom ended up giving her a hug later because she kept apologizing for crying.
I’m feeling pretty lucky about everything.
The whole Flickr photo album is available for everyone to look through, too.
We’re so excited to announce the 2nd Annual 3B Summer Celebration. Registration for the event will begin July 13, 2015 and we will be posting links to it all over the place so don’t worry about that. We have new ideas for this celebration including a silent auction AND Braeden has chosen a theme this year. Theme: SURVIVOR (we promise not to vote you off the island) Think luau meets tiki torches and obstacle courses. Right now we are looking for event sponsors. You can download the 2015 Summer Celebration Sponsorship Application here.
UPDATE: Our first sponsor is “LOVE WHAT YOU BOO” – Silver Sponsors, thank you so much! We now have two other individual sponsors Greg & Margie Mannering and Bob & Rose Willey. Braeden’s grandparents AND great-grandparents!
On May 22, the Friday before Memorial Day weekend, I had a day off school. So did the kids at Brick Mill Elementary. But that didn’t stop us from getting together and packing 206 bags to deliver to people in need in the Middletown, Delaware area. The room was full of students, a couple teachers, a handful of parents and even their Vice Prinicpal, Ms. Jacobs.
We all worked together to pack bags, some of which had toiletry items, all of which had clean water and healthy snacks. I also had a chance to talk to the kids and answer some questions. These were 5th grade honor students. They were all so nice and they seemed really happy to be helping. I think we all had a really good feeling being there. My Mom was able to talk to everyone, too. She’s getting pretty good at adding little bits of things here and there when I forget. Thanks Mom!
Thanks to the Brick Mill Elementary School 5th grade honor students. You guys are awesome. We made big changes that day and I am so happy I was able to work with all of you! I hope to come back next year!
My blog readers, I’m sorry, I have been waiting too long to write to you. I will work on this. I get busy. Many of you have asked if I am feeling better and I would like to say that I am. My cough is all gone and I’m back in school catching up on things.
Since I wrote a lot has happened. The Jefferson Awards dinner award ceremony in Newark was held on April 30 at Home Grown. I couldn’t stay long because I still didn’t feel well but I did get to see a lot of other young people who live in the Newark area and who are doing really awesome things. I am very impressed by what everyone is doing and I would like to offer a very special thank you to the Mayor of Newark, Polly Sierer for choosing Brae’s Brown Bags as her top project. It really means a lot to me and I hope I can do more in Newark to help people in need.
“Everyone deserves someone who cares. Everyone deserves a friend and that’s easy to do. So pack up a brown bag before you go to work. That way if you see someone in need you will have something you can give them. One brown bag can make you a champion.” – Braeden Mannering
I had a Skype interview with STOP Hunger on May 1st. I think it went well. It was hard to remember to look into the web cam instead of into the computer monitor and the monitor kept showing up in my glasses. I had to take them off. I’ll tell you more about that soon. You’ll be getting a super awesome fun update about STOP Hunger and the Stephen J. Brady Foundation 🙂
But now the update you have all been waiting for…
The Coming Together: Community Response to Hunger Conference update!
Wow!
To say that they event was a success is an understatement. (Okay that’s my Mom talking, but it’s true). We had nearly 200 kids attend from all across Delaware. There were 500 people at the conference and for the morning we all were in the same room learning together. One of the most eye opening moments of the group during the morning was when a student spoke during the town hall session and asked the legislators on the panel what they could do to help her family. She explained that she and her brothers and sisters don’t have food to eat every day.
We know that 1 in 5 kids are hungry. We know those numbers. We talk about that statistic. The morning of the hunger conference the number turned into the face of a real little girl right there in the room. It made a lot of people stop and think. It made me stop and think. To the panelists who answered questions from all of the kids, I thank you very much. I know it meant a lot to all of them and I wish we had more time to answer everyone’s questions. State Senator Bryan Townsend, State Senator Colin Bonini and Charlie Copeland, State Committee Chairman Delaware GOP many thanks.
Multimedia Design Challenge Winners’ Wall
We had many of the Multimedia Design Challenge winners in attendance. We hung up their posters and essay on a wall for everyone to see. They were very good and covered a bunch of different ideas about food waste, food insecurity and the importance of living a healthy lifestyle. Please check out the complete list of winners here.
We had a special video message from none other than the amazingly gifted Food Network Iron Chef and TV Host on The Chew, MARIO BATALI.
He said he was sad he couldn’t attend the conference but encouraged all the kids to continue raising awareness about food insecurity. He even congratulated me for coming up with the idea. Thank YOU Mario for sending us a video message, how cool is that!?
Most of the day was spent in a great big room called the Wilmington Room and this was the “Kid Track” of the conference. We had eight different activities which groups of students rotated through and participated in together. Most of the activities required a group effort. The Bear-Glasgow YMCA was there with their “Born to Move” program for youth fitness. The exercises were super fun! Even two Wilmington Police Officers joined in on the fun!
The Delaware Cooperative Extension Master Gardener’s taught kids about planting their own food, every kid left with a plant. Tanya Steel and Haile Thomas cooked healthy snacks for the kids at a healthy eating demo and taught them about how important it is for everyone to be able to eat healthy. My Gram and Pop took care of the 3B bag packing table and handed out shirts. My Grandmom Stephan and my friend Suzy from North DelaWHERE Happening worked with a Food Bank volunteer on the Money Pit activity. My Mom and me came up with that idea. Here’s our description of the game. “In a timed, interactive game designed by Braeden Mannering, himself, students will team up to dive into a money pit (ball pit) finding index cards with food items on them and then racing back to their table to create a nutritional meal out of their cards for under $1.25. As of 2015 (2011 statistics), the World Bank has estimated that there were just over 1 billion poor people in developing countries who live on $1.25 a day or less.”
We also had volunteers Linda and Mike Jarrell facilitate a “Power of Words” activity where the kids wrote how they felt about certain hunger themed quotes. They wrote such cool things that we are going to turn it into a book and send it to the volunteer, legislators and schools who participated in the event. It’s going to be awesome! My Uncle Greg and volunteer Katie Hegedus worked on a “Rice Bowl” activity which taught kids about the 1 in 5 children are hungry statistic. Then my friend Jada Littman and two legislative aides from the State Senate helped kids draw pictures or write letters to share their feelings about food insecurity. The letters will be sent to the students representative in Dover, Delaware. We are still working on matching up the zipcodes of the kids to their representative.
I’d like to thank Juan Castellanos, our photographer, the Food Bank of Delaware, the Food Research Action Center and Bank of America along with Senator Townsend and Jessica Stump for all their hard work in helping to plan this great event.
I’m home sick today. I started having a bad cough yesterday and then this morning I was just a coughing machine. But I wanted to be able to tell you some things.
Yesterday, I went to the Hotel DuPont and had lunch in their Gold Ballroom. It really is all gold colored inside and there are big lights and mirrors. I had three forks near my plate, two spoons and one knife. Can you believe it?
So I went there because I was invited to the lunch and I knew I was a finalist for the regional LEAD 360 Challenge award. They said at the lunch that a Jefferson Award is meant to be like a Nobel Prize for community service. The speakers all talked about really great people in Delaware who give back and who care about people and want to make a difference.
Former Governor/State Representative, Mike Castle, shaking my hand
Mr. Mike Castle was the main speaker, he was very nice. But when the Jefferson Award for Outstanding Youth Service was announced they started out by saying, “This young man started his charity at the age of 9 years old, packing bags with healthy snacks to feed the hungry…” My Mom looked at me and I looked at her and she started to cry because we knew they were talking about me. I was so surprised!
My Mom was quoted when they were talking about Brae’s Brown Bags, “Christy says she sees the ripple effect that he has caused because of being one little pebble.” That was something she said that I really liked. When I started talking with Jefferson Awards people I told them about that quote. They remembered!
“He likes the idea that all kids can be pebbles. If they work together they can make ripples that can grow to tidal waves. One pebble at a time. One brown bag at a time.” (The he is me :D)
Thank you to Emma Rider for this photo and for liking what I said
I got to go up on the stage and get a special medal. It’s really cool and very heavy, you wouldn’t think it would be so heavy, but it is.
I thanked everyone there for supporting and encouraging me. When I go to an event like this I think we are all really winners. Everyone in that room yesterday was part of a group, a school, a project doing good things, great things. I wouldn’t be where I am, 3B wouldn’t be what it is, without all of those people and their support.
Braeden with Omicron Alpha Upsilon (KON) Chapter
Another thing that happened was on Sunday I had a bag packing event at the University of Delaware. The Omicron Alpha Upsilon (KON) Chapter donated TONS of healthy snacks. I brought the supplies for packing and the water. We packed 94 bags in RECORD time! They should help me every time I pack, they were really fast!
The Coming Together: Community Response to Hunger Conference is on May 4. We are still looking for volunteers but many, many thanks to the people who have already signed up. Weston Williams and Emma Rider are going to help me moderate the Public Town Hall which I’m excited about. Emma is a friend of mine who does a lot of public service all around the world. She is a National Jefferson Award winner! She has helped collect over 100,000 pairs of shoes to make money to donate to Water Step which is an organization that helps get countries clean water. She started working with Water Step at the age of 12 and she has collected over 5 tractor trailer loads of shoes!
The Food Bank of Delaware, Brae’s Brown Bags and the Food Research and Action Center are proud to present Delaware’s third annual hunger conference. This year’s regional conference is entitled Coming Together: A Community Response to Hunger to reflect that it takes all of us – children, adults, nonprofits, government entities, businesses, faith-based organizations, educational institutions and others – working together to end hunger in our communities.
Our conference is scheduled for Monday, May 4, 2015 from 7:30 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. (time may change slightly depending on speaker needs) at the Chase Center on the Riverfront in Wilmington, Delaware.
Coming Together will feature both an adult track and kids’ track, with opportunities for both groups to come together to identify solutions to issues related to hunger. Planning is currently underway for the conference. A complete conference agenda will be released at a later date.
Braeden has developed a Multimedia Design Challenge for students 1st through 12th grade to participate in across Delaware to have an opportunity to attend the conference. Every public, private and charter school in Delaware has also received an application to be part of this conference in addition to receiving the design challenge to hand out to their students. The cost to the students who attend will be covered by the event hosts.
The cost for an adult to attend the full-day conference (price includes breakfast, lunch and sessions) is $40 (must register by April 3). After April 3, the price increases to $50. Click here to purchase tickets. (Sorry, but we cannot issue refunds)
For more information, please contact Kim Turner at kturner@fbd.org or (302) 444-8074.
My mom told me this morning that if I didn’t wear layers and dress properly the cold weather would hurt my skin. Of course I didn’t believe her because when I went outside I wasn’t cold. But then she told me it was because I was dressed right. Moms!
It’s really cold. Like, really, really cold. The app on my phone said it was 2 degrees but with the wind it felt like -18 degrees.
We have been packing up 3B bags for the emergency shelters. I wish there was more I could do. I put hand warmers in the bags but that won’t help when it is this cold, at least not a lot. The Friendship House says, “Over the last two winters, the number of people seeking sanctuary on bitterly cold nights has dramatically grown and become more diverse.” You can donate to the Friendship House to help or you can volunteer. For a current list and donation drop off options call 302-652-8133 for the Friendship House. You can also donate to 3B, we’ve been running out of hand warmers and food and buying them multiple times each week.
So a couple things to talk about. I don’t have school today because it is President’s Day but that doesn’t mean I won’t be busy.
This is me with Danielle Gletow
Last weekend, my Mom and me, we went to Atlanta, Georgia for the Kids Are Heroes Youth Leadership Summit. I had a good time. I met a lot of people. Even a boy from India. There were hundreds of kids there all doing cool things. Some of them are business type things, like this boy who has an ice cream cart and sells ice cream. A lot of the people I talked with all do things like help to fight against bullying or helping to raise money for malaria or cancer or down syndrome. Oh and Danielle Gletow who is a CNN Hero and she helps grant wishes to foster kids with her foundation called One Simple Wish.
The airport lost my presentation. Luckily our hotel was near an Office Max. My Mom and me worked on creating a new tri-fold until 10pm the night before I was to present. I got green glitter everywhere. Really.
I gave a talk during the summit and I think I did well. My Mom recorded some of it. You can watch or listen on my YouTube page. There are some pictures too at the bottom of this post.
Also my project is one of the top 15 up for a national #LEAD360 Jefferson Award. Very exciting! There has been social voting where you can support Brae’s Brown Bags and the voting ends tonight at 8pm. Please vote for Brae’s Brown Bags 🙂
Then tonight I’m giving a presentation at the University of Delaware to the Kappa Omicron Nu Honor Society. My Mom has class so she won’t be there but she’ll be in the same building. I think I’ll do good though. I like the students at UD they are always really nice.
We have a meeting with the Food Bank of Delaware on Wednesday about the upcoming regional hunger conference. We’re going to talk about the kid track. My friend Tanya Steel will be on the call. I am happy about that.
The Food Bank of Delaware, Brae’s Brown Bags and the Food Research and Action Center are proud to present Delaware’s third annual hunger conference. This year’s regional conference is entitled Coming Together: A Community Response to Hunger to reflect that it takes all of us – children, adults, nonprofits, government entities, businesses, faith-based organizations, educational institutions and others – working together to end hunger in our communities.
Our conference is scheduled for Monday, May 4, 2015 from 7:30 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. (time may change slightly depending on speaker needs) at the Chase Center on the Riverfront in Wilmington, Delaware.
Coming Together will feature both an adult track and kids’ track, with opportunities for both groups to come together to identify solutions to issues related to hunger. Planning is currently underway for the conference. A complete conference agenda will be released at a later date.
Braeden has developed a Multimedia Design Challenge for students 1st through 12th grade to participate in across Delaware to have an opportunity to attend the conference. Every public, private and charter school in Delaware has also received an application to be part of this conference in addition to receiving the design challenge to hand out to their students. The cost to the students who attend will be covered by the event hosts.
The cost for an adult to attend the full-day conference (price includes breakfast, lunch and sessions) is $40 (must register by April 3). After April 3, the price increases to $50. Click here to purchase tickets. (Sorry, but we cannot issue refunds)
For more information, please contact Kim Turner at kturner@fbd.org or (302) 444-8074.
My Mom and me met with people from the Food Bank on Thursday to talk a little bit more about the conference we’re all planning together. We have some more ideas on how to move forward and who to to invite. I would really like to invite Mario Batali and Gabby Douglas. I’m also going to work on creating a video invitation to send to the Kid President. I’ll let you know when I get it put together.
Then on Friday we met with Richard Rind, Director of Auxiliary Services at the University of Delaware and Sue Bogan who is the Director of Dining Services. My friend Jessica Stump joined us and so did Senator Bethany Hall-Long. We were meeting again to talk about how the University of Delaware should try and recover some food around campus to give to people in need. It isn’t really the dining halls, it’s the other food locations like Einstein Bagels or Starbucks who might have leftover food at the end of the day which, if not recovered, would be wasted. I’m hoping we can get the food to places who will be able to use it. It sounds like UD will be willing to work with me and my Mom, but we need a place to accept the food on a regular basis, and that seems to be the problem right now.
My Mom and me are flying to Atlanta, Georgia on Friday. I just know I will have a lot to share about the Kids Are Heroes Young Leaders’ Summit I’m attending. I am happy I’ll get to meet new people and share with them what I am doing with Brae’s Brown Bags and learn what they are doing in their communities. I can’t wait to meet the other “kid heroes.”
Ooooo and Fusion Fitness in Newark, DE is doing a fundraiser for Brae’s Brown Bags. I’m so happy they want to help out and also encourage people to not only be change makers in life but also to live healthy! They have held fundraisers for several different community organizations. Thank you Fusion Fitness!
And it has been SO COLD here in Delaware. I think it was 18 degrees this morning when we woke up for school and that wasn’t with the wind chill. There have been 15 or 16 code purples which means the nights are below 20 degrees. Really nice people volunteer to host sanctuary at their churches to allow people to come in out of the cold. I have been trying to get my 3B bags to these hosting sites as often as I can. It’s hard though sometimes I don’t have bags packed in time. I hope people like them when they get them and that they are helpful. Which reminds me, I need to tell my Mom we’re out of hand warmers. Again.
The Kohl’s Cares Scholarship Program awards youth all over the country for caring. It kind of seems silly but in an awesome way. Shouldn’t everyone choose to care about everyone else no matter what? I can’t tell you how grateful I am to have been nominated for the scholarship by multiple people and also how great it feels to have been chosen as a national scholarship winner.
It’s really cold. Like, really, really cold. The app on my phone said it was 2 degrees but with the wind it felt like -18 degrees.
