April 10, 2019
Nonprofit leadership students helping K-State thrive on Global Youth Service Day
On April 12, HandsOn K-State will host its third Mobile Food Distribution of the spring semester in partnership with Manhattan Youth Impacting Communities Club and Harvesters Community Food Network to provide resources for Manhattan community members facing food insecurity. These young people join millions of others around the globe who are celebrating Global Youth Service Day during the weekend of April 12-14.
HandsOn K-State and the Staley School of Leadership Studies hosts monthly Mobile Food Distribution events throughout the school year to support K-State and Manhattan community members facing food insecurity. The April Mobile Food Distribution event will involve an additional partnership with SODEXO and the Manhattan Youth Impacting Communities Club to help increase education about resources available to members of the Manhattan community. At the Mobile Food Distribution on Global Youth Service Day, youth volunteers will fill reusable grocery bags with fresh produce and food to benefit K-State families and members of the Manhattan community. These grocery bags also will include a resource booklet, stickers, erasers and crayons for children in attendance. Approximately 50 youth volunteers will engage with more than 150 attendees at the event to share information and engage diverse communities in learning about community resources such as Common Table Meals, the Flint Hills Breadbasket, and SNAP benefits. This is done with the intention of strengthening campus and community connections and to eventually lower levels of food insecurity across Riley County.
Interested volunteers may sign up to assist with the distribution.
Katie Buhler, a nonprofit leadership student at the Staley School of Leadership Studies applied for and received one of the SODEXO Stop Hunger Foundation Youth Grants to address the issue of food insecurity in the Manhattan community. The grant provides the supplemental resources to be distributed, alongside food provided by Harvesters. Her grant writing efforts are a component of the course Theories of Nonprofit Leadership where students prepare for future careers in the nonprofit sector or involvement as volunteers and board members of nonprofit organizations.
Global Youth Service Day, or GYSD, celebrates and mobilizes the millions of young people who improve their communities through service. GYSD is celebrated each April in more than 100 countries with young people working together to address the world's most critical issues and help their communities thrive.
"Our country is witnessing a divisiveness not seen in generations," said Steven A. Culbertson, CEO and president of Youth Service America, or YSA, the leader of GYSD. "At YSA, we understand that youth service levels the playing field, providing productive spaces where young people can come together for the common good, and be contributors not spectators. We need youth in Manhattan to be leaders and problem solvers today, not just the leaders of a distant tomorrow."
The Staley School of Leadership Studies mission is "Developing knowledgeable, ethical, caring, inclusive leaders for a diverse and changing world." Through engaging community partners, we enrich the education and well-being of members of the K-State campus community and greater Manhattan.
Celebrating 31 years of youth changing the world, Global Youth Service Day is the largest youth service and civic action event in the world and the only one that celebrates and creates opportunities for all youth ages 5-25 and their communities to thrive by working together for the common good.
Learn more and browse GYSD activities around the world on the GYSD Map at GYSD.org. Connect on Facebook at facebook.com/youthserviceamerica and on Twitter @YouthService and #GYSD.