Katie Stagliano Dreams of<br>No Hungry Children

When Katie Stagliano grew a 40 pound cabbage (yes, you read that right!), she didn’t know that she was beginning to cultivate a dream as well. When the 10-year-old from Summerville, SC realized how much cabbage was in her garden, she decided to donate it to needy families by working with Fields to Families, a Charleston, SC nonprofit organization that works to ease hunger in the Lowcountry by gathering nutritious crops from generous farmers and community gardeners and distributing it to local food pantries, soup kitchens and shelters.

Katie’s cabbage fed nearly 300 people – and inspired her to learn more about childhood hunger in the United States. In discovering that more than 12 million kids in the United States go to bed hungry each night, Katie decided to take action.

Her first task was to work together with her family to expand their own garden so that they could donate vegetables to needy families. But beyond her own backyard, she wanted to teach other children how to get involved. To grow her idea, she initiated the planting of a garden at her school, which also donates its fresh produce to local food agencies. Through a generous grant from Fields to Families, Katie’s school is receiving seeds and volunteer help, and Katie will get the chance to work with a master gardener as her mentor!

Katie also designed her very own “No Hungry Children!” t-shirt, which is available for purchase online. A portion of the proceeds from her t-shirt sales supports Katie’s efforts, as well as the work of Amazing Kids!, a nonprofit organization that fosters the dreams of kids like Katie.

“I think it is important to have something to strive for,” says Katie. “By planting a garden or just some seeds in a pot you can make a difference. My cabbage alone fed 275 people. If more kids did the same, we all could be helping to make a long-time dream of no hungry people possible.”

To learn more about Katie and her dream of No Hungry Children!, visit the Amazing Kids! website.