Senior Vicky Bai received the Los Gatos Union High School District (LGSUHSD) board Student Recognition during its meeting on Nov. 16 for her volunteer work at Hunger at Home, a nonprofit organization started in 2008 that partners with local businesses to donate surplus food to people who are food insecure in the Bay Area. 

Bai started volunteering in her freshman year when she was assigned to complete six hours of volunteer work in Health class. She surfed the internet for local volunteer activities and discovered Hunger at Home. 

Her original intention was just to complete the assignment; however, as Bai became more involved with the organization, she discovered the importance of its mission. 

“I decided to continue with them because I realized the extent of the problem with food here,” she said. “In America, 40% of food is wasted and one in 10 people are food insecure in Santa Clara County.” 

When Bai began volunteering, her work consisted of helping with food distribution efforts. She followed the organization’s planning and went to the assigned locations to help.

Last year, she started working directly with the founder, Ewell Sterner, on different projects, such as making 3D graphics of the 10 million pounds of food distributed. 

“I made a graphic using SketchUp in which I put the amount of food on a football stadium to show the amount of food based on how many football stadiums it would fill,” Bai said.  

This year, the organization is planning to expand to the high school level by forming a Youth Council with Bai as its leader. During the summer, the council planned and held multiple webinars, covering topics from food waste to food labels. 

Now, Bai and the council are focusing on creating individual school clubs to do school-specific service projects like food drives, a school community garden or projects to reduce lunch waste. To help with the expansion, Bai invited students from different high schools in the area interested in the environment or sustainability to a convention held at Marriott Hotel by Hunger at Home on Nov. 20. 

At the event, more than a dozen teens gathered to plan the future of the Youth Council and brainstorm project ideas together and advocate for fundings. They were able to receive a $2,000 grant from the Sereno Group, a local real estate company. 

Within the next year, Bai plans to expand to six club chapters of Hunger at Home in high schools and universities. Her ultimate goal is to implement Hunger at Home in every education institution to resolve the issue of food insecurity in the Bay Area.

“The recognition [from the school board] really inspired me to do even more for my community,” Bai said. “I hope I can lead Hunger at Home to maximize the impact to help as many people as possible.”