GENYOUth and the NFL Hold Super School Meals Celebration Against Food Insecurity
By Kyler Maira, WEBN Correspondent
The gym bleachers filled at the Benjamin Franklin High School for a community event on food nutrition at school. Students and teachers gathered around a makeshift stage surrounded by mobile meal carts that were being introduced to the school. The event celebrated the progress of GENYOUth, an organization with the mission of providing schools with nutritional food choices made in the classroom.
Saints linebacker Demario Davis said a change in the narrative around food is key to academic success.
“We live in a world that is telling us that food is about taste, but food is about your survival,” he said. “If you will eat breakfast and exercise in the morning before you start the day, you will change your life.”
GENYOUth says one out of every eight American students struggle with food security. In New Orleans, that number reaches one out of four.
Senior Kayla Bolden knows eating ties into academic performance.
“You can see it in my grades; I don’t perform as well when I don’t eat. Many of my classmates can vouch for me. I do sleep in class, and some of them might have heard my stomach rumble a few times really loudly.”
Her schoolmate Ben Blevins agreed, saying he struggles athletically when he misses breakfast. “I perform worse. You know, I’m slower, I’m more sluggish. Brain fog. You know, eating food before a game is really important.”
Corporations like Amazon, Domino’s, Frito Lay, Pepsico, and Quaker supported the event and helped GENYOUth provide Grab and Go school nutrition equipment packages to schools. The Benjamin Franklin School received mobile meal carts and milk coolers and is just one of over fifty-nine schools that received new equipment.
GENYOUth received grants that will allow access to approximately 9 million school meals benefitting 32,000 students in 2025.
“Next generation,” Davis said in his speech. “We want to make sure we receive the world, and we’re trying to leave it better. But we need you to help us leave it better for you, that you can leave it better for our kids and grandkids. That’s how we all work together. It’s like a relay race and we’re passing the baton to you.”