Karma for Cara Foundation awards microgrants to youth 18 years of age & younger who spearhead exceptional service projects in their communities. Microgrant recipients and twins Arjun & Maya (13) from TX and other students on the honor roll at their school engaged in a project called BEAR Bags in Honor of Cara. The group put together & distributed healthy snack bags to deserving kids via food pantries: “Especially since COVID 19, many people have lost their jobs & there are many hungry kids.”
- What inspired you to start this project? Mission BE A Resource (BEAR) is a community service club founded by a group of like-minded youngsters to help children in need. Our primary goal is to support underprivileged children in our community through donations and volunteering.There are many poor families in our city who have a difficult time feeding their children and themselves. There are also many children who are abused and neglected through no fault of their own under CPS care. We wanted to make our neighbors, community and city leaders aware of their suffering by making and giving snack bags for kids in need and posting a statement on social media so they can try to find a way to end childhood hunger and suffering.
- While working on your project, what surprised you? We know kids in countries like India live in poverty. We were surprised how many kids in a rich country like America go to bed hungry each night! We were also surprised that 150 abused and neglected children come to Child Advocates of Fort Bend every month for treatment so they can tell their stories and get better. We are so lucky to have loving parents and a good family.
- What do you feel you learned from this experience? It doesn’t take that much to feed a hungry child or put a smile on their face and it is such a rewarding experience. According to 2020 census data: Texas’ population is 29,183,290. It only takes $2.00 to give a child a decent meal. If every person in Texas commits to donating $1.00 per week to a food bank, can we not eradicate childhood hunger and suffering? This is something that is easy to achieve.
- How did Karma for Cara impact your project? We were able to buy snacks because of the money we received from Karma for Cara and we really appreciate their help.
- How will your project continue to impact others? We hope to continue volunteering and donating what we can to underprivileged children. If we as tweens can make a small difference so can the rich and powerful! Hope we can create a ripple that will lead to a big wave that can bring about change to help children from low-income families live a better life in the future.
- How many hours did you spend on your project? 6
- How many youth volunteers or students were involved in your project? 9
- How many total hours did other youth volunteers or students spend on your project? 6
