Another successful kids’ hunger conference complete

Many people around the world just rush through the day to get it over with.

But I believe all of you in this room are of a different mindset.

You are doing what the others are NOT doing.

You are going about your day with a purpose.

And that purpose is to be a changemaker!

Braeden Mannering, during 2019 Coming Together Hunger Conference
Braeden Mannering providing welcome remarks at the beginning of the hunger conference.

We partnered with the Food Bank of Delaware and First Chance Delaware to co-host our 3rd bi-annual kids’ hunger conference which happened yesterday, April 4, 2019. (It was the 5th annual conference for adults). The event was a success and we are so excited to send over 100 letters to Delaware legislators written by the students who attended! These letters include their thoughts about hunger, food insecurity, service and advocacy. Hearing ideas from 1st through 8th graders is amazing. These students are not only intelligent, but also full of compassion!

We had volunteers from Christiana High School attend and help out with the gardening station of the day! They also showed off the Food Bank of Delaware’s mobile pantry in all its tie-dyed glory. These students are FFA members and their teacher Mr. Phipps shared them with us for the hunger conference. They were awesome!

The University of Delaware provided demos and educational activities at several stations. They taught about native bees and the importance of pollinators in relation to our food supply. The students learned about veggie regeneration, food waste, food recovery and the cost of nutritional food with a make-shift grocery store! Many thanks to the College of Agriculture & Natural Resources as well as Cooperative Extension!

Did you know there is a way to scan your skin and find out about your nutritional intake? Well there is and it is called a Veggie Meter, at least that is what the Food Bank calls it and they allowed the students and opportunity to check out what their vitamin levels look like.

Learning about the Food Bank of Delaware's Veggie Meter vitamin scanner

The Delaware Farm Bureau made the trip with their Ag Education Mobile Classroom. Laura Simpson said, “The Ag Lab is a traveling classroom that allows kids to see different aspects of agriculture and try it out for themselves.” It was a super fun addition to the conference and we are so grateful Ms. Simpson was able to attend!

Additionally, NFL Play 60 came out to the event and hosted a station about physical fitness and living a healthy lifestyle. They had their music playing and got the kids moving around. After they got their fitness activity in, the students then moved along to a station which included mindfulness and yoga. It’s so critical for our youth to learn about to decompress and unwind. Their brain health and emotional well being is vital and something they need to make time for every day.

Obviously, it wouldn’t be a 3B hunger conference without hearing about Brae’s Brown Bags and packing some bags of healthy food for those in need in our community. So every student had an opportunity to do just that and they were all excited to help! They helped to pack over 200 bags of healthy food for our homeless and low-income populations.

To end this eventful day we joined the adults, who were partaking in the Food Banks adult track of the conference, for lunch. It was during this time when we had the honor of listening to Jason Brown speak about leaving the NFL to become a farmer in North Carolina. His speech was inspirational and moving. Wise Farmer Brown spoke to all of us about the importance of service, empathy and heart. He said, “Never Stop Giving, Never Stop Loving, Never Stop Growing!” Many thanks to the American Dairy Association Northeast Branch for being a sponsor to the event and connecting us with Farmer Brown!

Wise Farmer, Jason Brown of First Fruits Farm
Wise Farmer, Jason Brown of First Fruits Farm

As always we want to thank every single person who came out to the conference as a participant and volunteer. We thank the many generous sponsors who helped to make this event possible. We truly believe there is no better way to learn and grow as individuals and as a community than through hands-on activity and meaningful opportunities.

Many, many thanks to all of you!

A tidal wave of ripples

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.

BraedenMannering-MikeCastle
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)

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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
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!

Conference-Save-the-Date-2015The 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!

Food recovery, hunger conferences and summits

Conference-Save-the-Date-2015My 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.”

Fusion_LOGOOoooo 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.