2020: The Hunger Challenge
Fighting Hunger and Malnutrition
Students brought the ingredients to cook up change.
Why hunger?
Food is the foundation for a healthy life.
An estimated 821 million people—one person in nine—suffer from hunger worldwide. In the U.S., the percentage is even higher, at 1 in 5. Hunger can be heartbreakingly obvious or deceptively invisible. That’s why Hunger Challenge teams learned about hunger in all its guises—malnutrition, food insecurity, ‘food deserts,’ and more—and investigated how hunger prevents young people in different places from living full lives.
Youth Supporting youth.
Students learned about the impact of hunger and created their own creative recipes in response. Each recipe was matched with $3 and with additional giving due to COVID-19, student efforts unlocked $2.3 million dollars that supported hunger and malnutrition programs in communities worldwide, including UNICEF’s work fighting chronic malnutrition in Yemen and Ethiopia; Mary’s Meals’ school-based feeding programs in India, Malawi, and Haiti; and eleven other community-based organizations confronting hunger and nutrition around the U.S.
Students cooked up change.
To celebrate students delicious work, we created the Students Rebuild Hunger Challenge Cookbook! In it you can explore the favorite meals and snacks of students from all around the world. You can check out the cookbook here and try out some of the recipes!
How it Worked
From learning and creativity to hunger relief.
1. Register, Set, Go.
More than 1,600 teams in 54 countries registered for the Hunger Challenge, making it one of the largest in our 11-year history!
2. Creatively baked recipes rolled in.
Tens of thousands of students mobilized to make over 130,000 recipes! Each was matched with up to a $6 donation from the Bezos Family Foundation to support hunger relief.
3. Collectively, students served up change for children around the world.
In total, $2.3 million dollars was generated to support over 230,000 children and youth with life-saving interventions.
Interactive Map
Check out the Hunger Challenge teams and projects!
Teams
Art
Projects
Learning Materials
Free teaching materials for any K-12 setting.
Updates
Hunger Challenge Updates
We did it!
The Hunger Challenge has officially ended! We are calculating all the impact students globally made together. Come back in late July 2020 to see the impact report!
Double Your Impact Through June 5, 2020!
3/30/2020
Learn more about the Spring Campaign running through June 5, 2020 which will count all submitted recipes for double at $6!
These recipes traveled 6,000 miles to us and arrived from the 10th grade Nativité Team of La Nativité Ensemble Scolaire in Aix-en-Provence, France!
We have just reached 2% of our goal! The Walden International School in Ontario, Canada just submitted some amazing 3 dimensional recipe art.
We are so excited to have youth-led teams taking the Hunger Challenge. Te'Lario Watkins is a 11-year old mushroom farmer who runs Tiger Mushroom Farms.
We are excited to announce a collaboration with internationally renowned, multi-Michelin starred chef Gordon Ramsay for the Hunger Challenge!
The Waimea Canyon Middle School in Waimea, Hawaii has created some amazing recipes and three dimensional food to match! Submitting art to the Challenge can be a journey in creativity. What ideas do you have?
Norwood High School was our first team to submit recipes just 2 weeks into the Hunger Challenge! Here is a great recipe for a a traditional Lebanese dinner!
Hunger Challenge partner HAPPY is a youth-founded and led organization that promotes youth empowerment through holistic health education.
The CHS WISE (Women In Science & Engineering) team submitted recipes that offer solutions to global problems like "A Recipe to End Mental Health Stigma"!
Wow! Look at this sweet and cool artistic recipe submitted by one of our Students Rebuild high school interns!
Grow Dat Youth Farm is partnering with Students Rebuild for this year's Hunger Challenge!
The Kohala Center is one of ten organizations supported through the Students Rebuild Hunger Challenge.
A cupcake shaped cupcake recipe is a one unique and inventive way to personalize the treat you love.