Grind Out Hunger Mission Statement:
MISSION STATEMENT: To empower the youth by utilizing the passion of skateboarding, surfing, snowboarding and music to take leadership in the fight against childhood hunger and malnutrition.
VISION STATEMENT: To decrease childhood hunger and malnutrition 50% nationally by 2015.
Grind Out Hunger harnesses the energy of young people, and their concern for helping their peers, to raise awareness, food, and funds to fight hunger. The goal is to mobilize students to take action and become leaders around the issue of childhood hunger. The challenge is to make sure the message resonates with youth and that they have appropriate opportunities to contribute. Using trusted communicators like young adults affiliated with action sports, prominent youth athletes, and young adults who faced hunger themselves, helps make sure the message gets heard. Savvy use of tools like social media and events such as benefit concerts and skate jams makes it easy for kids to participate. While youth are often overlooked as donors and advocates fighting childhood hunger, Grind Out Hunger unlocks their potential to make a difference.
Grind Out Hunger was created through the vision of skateboarders helping kids overcome hunger. Santa Cruz Skate and Surf Shop founded Grind Out Hunger with the goal of inspiring kids to help kids; Danny Keith mentions “by going directly to the schools and talking with the kids, it has a huge impact.” Grind Out Hunger is an educational piece challenging local elementary, middle and high schools to raise food and money for hungry children in the community. The school that raises the most pounds per student is awarded gift certificates to Santa Cruz Skate and Surf Shop total valued at $1400. Keith continues “The collaboration between students and Grind Out Hunger has been very successful raising over 1,000,000 pounds together”.
“The secret message communicated to most young people today by the society around them is that they are not needed, that the society will run itself quite nicely until they – at some distant point in the future – will take over the reigns. Yet the fact is that the society is not running itself nicely… because the rest of us need all the energy, brains, imagination and talent that young people can bring to bear down on our difficulties. For society to attempt to solve its desperate problems without the full participation of even very young people is imbecile.” quote by Alvin Toffler
