Karma for Cara Foundation awards microgrants to youths 18 years of age and younger who spearhead exceptional service projects in their communities. Meet 18 year old Sophie from St. Louis, MO; this microgrant was Sophie’s 4th award from K4C! Sophie’s current goal is to engage youth in Kansas City, MO with building and growing multiple gardens in the urban area. She and her nonprofit Grow Healthy have branched out to Kansas City, Missouri since, like St. Louis, the community has both a high rate of childhood obesity and numerous families struggling to provide healthy and nutritious food options to their children. Her raised vegetable garden pre-school and low-income elementary school projects strive to raise awareness for childhood hunger in the community, to increase the amount fresh and healthy produce available at food banks and at childcare facilities, and to educate youth on the benefits of gardening and eating fresh produce while making a sustainable impact in the community. Her mission is to activate and engage teens in improving their communities. She recruits youth from area schools to build, plant and maintain produce gardens at low-income pre-schools, shelters and elementary schools. The project donates all the produce to families-in-need and to local area food banks.

1. What inspired you to start this project? Lack of fresh produce at area food banks, lack of gardens at low-income area daycares.
2. Other than you, how many student volunteers participated in your service project? 250
3. How many adult volunteers participated in your service project? 3
4. How many hours did you spend on your project?  1500
5. How many hours did other volunteers spend on your project? 300
6. How many individuals were affected by your project? 2500
7. During the time period between when you applied for a K4C microgrant & when you completed the project, what surprised you? How much young people can do when given the chance to improve their communities.
8. Overall what did you learn from this experience? The importance of youth volunteerism for all races, ethnic backgrounds, sexual orientation, religions.
9. How will your project continue having an impact in the future? We are able to expand our project thanks to your grant and recruit more young volunteers.
10. How was the K4C microgrant helpful in the completion of your project? Without the funds we would not have been able to complete our project. Thank you for this opportunity!