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 and malnutrition are not just immediate threats to health and well-being—over time, they can keep children from growing, learning and developing their full potential.
2020: The Hunger Challenge
Fighting Hunger and Malnutrition
Students brought the ingredients to cook up change.
Tens of millions of children around the world go to bed hungry or malnourished each night—but students from around the world changed that. Through the Hunger Challenge, students were able to mobilize $2.3 million for programs fighting hunger. Learn more below.
Download the Impact Report
Why hunger?
Food is the foundation for a healthy life.
Hunger might look different than you think.
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. We’re also looking at what can be done to end hunger, from emergency relief to long-term solutions.
Continue to cook up change!
Even though the Hunger Challenge has ended, the need to address hunger in our world is still as important as ever. Check out the Hunger Challenge drop down on our resources page to find learning materials and video related to hunger and food insecurity.
Youth helping youth.
Students 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.
Make the students recipes!
To celebrate students work, we created the Studnets Rebuild Hunger Challenge Cookbook! In it you can explore the favorite meals and snacks of students from all around the world. The cookbook will be released for download in August 2020. Come back to find it that month!
How it Worked
From learning and creativity to hunger relief.
We made it easy for students to help their peers while also taking away a lasting understanding of hunger and its effects, nutrition, agriculture, and global citizenship. These were the steps:
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!
There are never too many chefs in this kitchen. Students from all over the world stepped up to take the Hunger Challenge. Explore the more than 1,600 teams that joined and click on the apple icons to learn about the programs funded.
Registered
Teams
Teams
Submitted
Art
Art
Your Team
Challenge
Projects
Projects
Learning Materials
Free teaching materials for any K-12 setting.
The Challenge has ended, but you can still minimize prep time and maximize student engagement with our curricula, lesson plans, and other resources. Many are informed by national standards, all are flexible enough for any setting, and all are free of charge. Below are the essential overview materials, and there’s many more to explore on our Resources page.
View more resources
Updates
Hunger Challenge Updates
Meet our partners, read inspiring notes, and see artfully designed recipes from teachers and students around the world.
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!
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
While many things have been either postponed or cancelled due to the devastating COVID-19 outbreak, we are pleased to be able to extend and expand our double campaign through the end of the Hunger Challenge. That means that ALL recipes you submit from now on will be matched with $6! We know that with school and events cancelled, many of you were concerned about missing the opportunity to have your students' art make an even bigger impact. With this extension, you can turn your art in when you can and trust that it will still get matched with double.
We hope your teams will continue to make recipes. We are currently identifying additional opportunities that your efforts will support given the increase in hunger due to the global pandemic we are experiencing. Stay tuned for more information on how your participation will help in the coming weeks.
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!
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 have just reached 2% of our goal! The Walden International School in Ontario, Canada just submitted some amazing 3 dimensional recipe art.
Learn more about Te'Lario and his participation in the Hunger Challenge on our blog.
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.
Chef Gordon Ramsey is encouraging everyone to take the Hunger Challenge as he will be selecting one students' recipe to make live and share on his YouTube channel in April! Be sure to register for the Challenge and get your recipes submitted by March 2020 to be considered.
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?
See more team recipes by checking out or Challenge Map and by following us on all social media @studentsrebuild.
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!
Founded by Hallie Thomas, HAPPY provide interactive & fun peer-to-peer learning experiences for youth, grades 3-6, in diverse communities all across the U.S. and globally. Their initiatives include plant-based nutrition/culinary summer camps, school visits & tours, and more!
Follow this link to learn more about the cool thing HAPPY is up to:
Learn more
Hunger Challenge partner HAPPY is a youth-founded and led organization that promotes youth empowerment through holistic health education.
See more team recipes by checking out or Challenge Map and by following us on all social media @studentsrebuild.
The CHS WISE (Women In Science & Engineering) team submitted recipes that offer solutions to global problems like "A Recipe to End Mental Health Stigma"!
We love the way they used a recycled aluminum can, collage, and drawing to creatively display this recipe for pasta and tomato sauce. What creative materials will YOU use to take action in the Hunger Challenge?
Wow! Look at this sweet and cool artistic recipe submitted by one of our Students Rebuild high school interns!
Grow Dat Youth Farm brings together young people from across New Orleans to learn about, grow, sell, and prepare fresh and nutritious produce and meals – especially in neighborhoods where access to such food is limited. They also weave in high quality youth leadership programming and offer jobs and a supportive community to students in need.
Learn more about their cool and incredible work here:
Learn more
Grow Dat Youth Farm is partnering with Students Rebuild for this year's Hunger Challenge!
The Kohala Center's mission is to turn research and Hawaiian ancestral knowledge into action, so that communities in Hawai‘i and around the world can thrive—ecologically, economically, culturally, and socially. They weave local young people into their work, so that the next generation can help steward this important mission.
Visit them to learn more:
Learn more
The Kohala Center is one of ten organizations supported through the Students Rebuild Hunger Challenge.
What other shapes and styles might you use to be creative and make your work stand out? What foods do you want to celebrate, be grateful for, and represent through the Hunger Challenge? We can’t wait to see!
A cupcake shaped cupcake recipe is a one unique and inventive way to personalize the treat you love.