Sam during a radio appearance. The image is from his Facebook page.
My name is Patricia Tarasovic and I am Vice President of Valley United Way Community Engagement.
Samuel Rodrigue is a student at the Chatfield-LoPresti Elementary School in Seymour.
He is an amazing young man who wants to end childhood hunger.
When Samuel first came to my office to tell me his story I was immediately in awe of his determination and passion to truly carry out his mission to end hunger. I definitely feel he is a Valley Youth Making a Difference. And after speaking with Samuel you will believe he will accomplish his goal! And, Samuel is just 10 years old.
The story is told by Samuel himself:
One evening my dad and I had a conversation about children who don’t have enough to eat, and that’s when it hit me.
Every night my dad cooks us a warm meal and we all sit together at the table and talk, and every morning he makes me breakfast before school. Other kids, they don’t have that
They go to bed hungry every night and go to school hungry every day. Maybe their dad is out of work, or their single mom works late, maybe they don’t have enough money or they could be homeless.
No matter what it is, we need to put an end to this. I started ‘Sam’s Kids‘ last September and in just eight months I have collected more 16,000 pounds of food to deliver to to our local food banks.
Currently there are 11 active food drives and there are ‘Sam’s Kid’s’ in New York, California and Maryland!
My goal is to be across the country and have ‘Sam’s Kid’s’ food drives in every state!
To get there I have created the Sam’s Kid’s challenge.
I am challenging one person from another state to hold a Sam’s Kinds food drive.
They in turn will challenge someone else from another state. I have also created another challenge to all local businesses stop help me food homeless children.
I challenge one business each month and together we go to a shelter where we cooked an serve. So far, a few businesses have accepted my challenge.
— — — — — — — — — —
“Valley Youth Making A Difference,” is brought to you by the Valley Council for Health and Human Services and The Valley Indy.
The goal is to feature young people who are doing great things in the Valley community.
To nominate a young person, please visit the “Valley Youth Making A Difference” webpage, read the text, and fill out the form.
