Foodshare Volunteer Chosen as Connecticut's Top Youth Volunteer

Dhruv Suryadevara of Ellington, CT, and a dedicated Foodshare volunteer, was chosen as Connecticut’s top youth volunteers by the Prudential Spirit of Community Awards for 2020.

He was given this recognition due to his contribution in the area of food insecurity. As part of the award, he received a $1,000 scholarship. Due to the pandemic, Dhruv was unable to be honored for his award in person at a national ceremony in Washington D.C. In lieu of that, he and the other honorees were asked to choose a voluntary organization to receive an additional $2,500. He chose Foodshare as his voluntary organization!

"I have chosen to contribute my award money entirely towards serving the basic need of people to help subside their hunger. I am an active volunteer at Foodshare, and have contributed over 200 hours of volunteering in the past couple of years. I have also conducted food drives for the organization. Due to my association with Foodshare and the amazing work that they do, I felt that Foodshare is the right choice to make the best use of my award money. Also, as part of Covid-19 relief efforts, Foodshare has been conducting a special drive-thru food distribution at Rentschler Field in East Hartford and has seen thousands of visitors. I was told that a vast majority of those visiting (greater than 70%) have never relied on a food bank like Foodshare before. Having participated in the food distribution as a volunteer myself, I have decided to use the award money to offset some of the increased costs incurred by Foodshare. Recently the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to World Food Program (WFP) for its efforts to combat hunger. This further reinforced my stance on food insecurity during this pandemic. I also have co-founded a non-profit called Art of Giving and I am a lead youth volunteer in the organization. I will continue to work on serving the needy people and bring awareness among youth on giving back to the community."

Dhruv is a currently a freshman Kingswood Oxford school at West Hartford, CT.