5th Grader Starts A Garden With A Mission To Feed Entire City

According to feedingamerica.org, as of 2015, 13.1 million children were living in food-insecure households. In 22 states and in Washington, D.C., twenty-percent or more of children were living with food insecurity. These statistics are staggering—that’s 1 in 5 kids who may go to bed hungry.

I’m incredibly lucky. I have never gone to bed wondering where my next meal is coming from. My family has never faced empty cabinets and mealtimes with not enough food to go around. Austin King Hurt is a 5th grader who has not always been as fortunate. He and his family have been directly affected by hunger and food insecurity.

He shared his memories of those tough times: “I took my mamma’s beans out of the cabinet because we didn’t have much to eat… All we had was rice and those bags of beans… It was like a very small bag of beans, not even enough to feed everybody, so I had to make enough.”

Austin was inspired to do something to change his situation, and that turning point would not only help his family, but started a movement that continues to grow. Instead of preparing the beans for dinner, he decided to turn them into something more. He dug a hole and planted the beans: “All I knew was water, dirt and sunshine. That’s all I knew. I didn’t know nothing else.”

Like magic beans, that handful of beans turned into enough to feed his family through the winter. Three years have passed and Austin has expanded his garden to include peppers, raspberries, and herbs. He helps feed and bring his community together with the growing garden and his, “I’ll grow it. You’ll pick it philosophy”. But he has his heart set on bigger goals: “My first idea was that I could stop world hunger from this,” says Austin.

What an inspiration! Watch the entire video, as well as his “how-to” video for growing sweet potatoes below and please like and share Austin’s story.


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