Feed Bergen

The pandemic has been a challenge for members of Bergen County, New Jersey this past year. Feed Bergen, a group organized by three juniors in Bergen County Academies’ SkillsUSA chapter, recognized this and decided to take action. Penelope Lascala, Amelia Okulewicz, and Deandra Lulea worked to educate their peers about the ongoing issues in the community and helped motivate them to become a part of the solution. Their goal for Feed Bergen “is to spread awareness about food insecurity to our community and take action to help those in need". With all three girls being a part of the school’s Culinary Academy, they were able to take the lessons they learned and apply them to their work. Some skills they used included creating nutritious meals for low-income families. Their familiarity with social media also helped them spread their ideas. Lascala, Okulewicz, and Lulea also worked with Commissioner Tracy Zur of Bergen County, NJ. Ultimately, Feed Bergen was able to offer aid, advice, and donations to people in need around the county.

With the help of the SkillsUSA members at Bergen Academy, Feed Bergen was able to successfully spread awareness throughout the school about the growing number of families with food insecurity in the county. Along with independent community service, the group partnered with Never Alone Again, the Bergen County Security Task Force, and the Diversity Alliance Club at Bergen Academies. While the girls did exceed their expectations for the overall goal, they recorded their initial plans as follows: educate 50 people on food insecurity through chapter meetings and Diversity Alliance workshops, raise $200 for Never Alone Again, accumulate 200 views on Tik Tok healthy recipe videos, reach 300 people on Instagram, @feedbergen, and create seven healthy recipes to be put into food boxes.
Lascala, Okulewicz, and Lulea simultaneously made an impact on the community and school. Feed Bergen received an overwhelming amount of support and was able to raise $475. They were also able to educate 84 people within the school and accumulated 763 total views on their Tik Tok videos. The @feedbergen Instagram page reached 353 people and instead of 7 recipes, they were able to create 21. At school, papers were published in the Academy Chronicle to spread awareness and many students helped create menus and visited the Instagram page. Along with reaching their peers, Feed Bergen received the attention of the principal, Russell Davis. The girls received letters of recognition from administrators as well as adults around Bergen County. The official SkillsUSA Instagram account also noticed their excellent work and featured them on their page and Tik Tok account. After months of dedicated work to help others, Feed Bergen became a successful organization that was able to achieve amazing things.