Update: The next teen farmers market has been rescheduled from August 8 to August 16 because of the weather. It will be held at 112 Broadway Street in Durham. RSVP here.
For the first time, 18 innovative teens from Durham-based entrepreneurial nonprofit Echo are working to provide more than 3,000 meals to school-aged children facing food insecurity for their campaign “Teens Tackle Hunger.”
The campaign runs through mid-August and aims to feed thousands of children, especially while Durham Public Schools kitchens are closed from July 26 to August 16. With 56 percent of the student population potentially facing hunger, the young entrepreneurs hope “Teens Tackle Hunger” will make accessing food easier. The campaign consists of four farmers’ markets, mobile food trucks that will visit select locations in Durham, and community food events, all free. Several local organizations, such as Durham Cares, partnered with the Echo teens to help make their campaign a reality.
The INDY spoke with Pilar Gutierrez, a rising sophomore at UNC Greensboro and one of the project leaders, to learn more about its origins, the events, and the importance of youth involvement in communities.
INDY: What is echoReverb and how does the Tackle Local Hunger Campaign tie into its goals?
Gutierrez: echoReverb is a youth entrepreneurial hub where young people can turn their ideas into reality through business pitches and competitions. In the past couple of months, we hosted a design sprint focusing on tackling hunger, and we had young people pitch their own ideas.
This summer, we decided to launch two types of ventures because we know that for four weeks, Durham Public Schools are going to close their kitchens. DPS families and students rely on the school summer lunch, and they won’t have access to that. We decided to solve that gap and launched two ventures: one, the farmers market, and then the food trucks. The farmers market is more directed toward teenagers who can go to this event and get free produce, meals, and do activities and play games. The food truck/catering event is more directed toward the Durham community, specifically in East Durham, [people] can attend, get free meals, and know about us.
What sparked the idea for the campaign?
It started with one of the two Youth Advisory Council echoReverb members. The Youth Advisory Council is in charge of directing the program, organizing the field trips, events the students want. They came up with the idea of, ‘we see a lot of food insecurity going on here in Durham, so what if we make that into a topic for the year?’
The Echo team decided to start a campaign where we can host these events. Our goal was going to be $30,000, so we reached out to partners, organizations, the community, and people to know about this. In the end, we reached over $30,000 for hosting the events. We also wanted to provide opportunities for young people, so we recruited teen interns who would help with the logistics, planning, and setup of the farmers markets and events.
What activities took place at the last two markets?
We decided to include activities and games like Connect Four and Uno, types of board games where teens can interact because we wanted to make sure that the public was able to network and make new friends at the farmers market. We also had catering; we partnered with Inter-Faith Food Shuttle, who gave us free produce and cooking demos. We also partnered with Bike Durham. They have bike smoothies where the public can make smoothies by riding a bike. We had local business entrepreneurs come in and talk to us about what this place was about, and we recruited a DJ.
Talk to me about the mobile food trucks.
We decided that the food trucks’ locations are going to be different every time.
Inter-Faith Food Shuttle provided food trucks to us. We’re going to have cooking demos going on, people trying out new types of food. We decided to have the food trucks located in the Eastern community because we realize that there’s a certain stereotype when it comes to locations like East Durham, like there’s violence in the area—but one of the things that can make growth in those areas is having events for the community where they are able to interact.
There are [also] fewer food pantries in that area, there are more in the downtown center. But some families don’t have a car, so oftentimes they have to use a public bus, and due to time, they aren’t able to do that. We decided to go to these locations and have the food trucks [there] in order to let the community know about us, and we have given full access to free meals, activities, and so much more.
Is there a memory that stands out that you’ve made while working on the campaign?
Whenever we have meetings with each other at ReCity, we always talk about our personal lives because most of us come from low-income communities. That’s one of the things that we wanted teenagers who have the same experience to get out of this opportunity and be able to help their own community.
[At the events] it’s very fun, exciting, and joyful to see people having fun, talking to each other, and seeing them smiling and laughing … it’s a genuinely fun experience. It’s an experience that probably not many other organizations do, so having this makes us feel like we achieved in helping people and that we can also help achieve more in the future—like having the business pitches from hunger and start them as an incubator.
Is there any advice that you would give students who want to start a project about a topic they are passionate about?
My advice, whenever an individual, especially a young person, wants to start their project, is to have a huge sense of motivation and to never give up, regardless of the circumstances.
The next food truck event on August 9 at Monument of Faith Church.
This interview was edited for length and clarity.
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