Chris Gantan, an 11th-grade Crescenta Valley High School student, was awarded a Sodexo Stop Hunger Foundation Youth Grant through Youth Service America (YSA). The grant will support Gantan in leading a community service project that addresses the issue of childhood hunger.

One in six people (more than 50 million people), including one in four children (approximately 17 million children), in the United States are experiencing food insecurity in 2021. This is a problem that can be solved, and young people are a part of the solution.

Youth-led activities will take place through May 31 with special events already scheduled with local restaurants Kokoroll Café on April 17, Pan Tang Family Restaurant on April 25 and Honeybird on May 2.

For more information and to sign-up visit www.Cooking2endchildhoodhunger.org.

“In the world’s top food producing country, I believe no child should be hungry. I also recognize that restaurants have struggled due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Gantan. “To solve this unnecessary problem I started the Cooking to End Childhood Hunger Project. This project is a series of online cooking classes featuring chefs from local restaurants in the La Crescenta/La Cañada/Glendale area who will demonstrate one of their dishes. One-hundred percent of donations will go directly to the No Kid Hungry Foundation and Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.”

Gantan is one of 106 young leaders across the country and one of three in Southern California awarded grants to organize projects to help end childhood hunger. Gantan included his peers from Crescenta Valley High School’s Cooking for a Cause Club and many others around this issue to help end childhood hunger through awareness, service, advocacy and philanthropic activities. They join millions of other young people around the world leading up to Global Youth Service Day, April 23-25.