West Newsmagazine 2-7-18

22 I SCHOOLS I
February 7, 2018
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By JESSICA MESZAROS
@WESTNEWSMAG
WESTNEWSMAGAZINE.COM
From St. Louis to New York, Just
for Kidz reaches out to the world
Volunteers with the St. Louis JFK chapter help
with Winter Homeless Outreach on Jan. 13.
[From left, back row] Gwen, Sadhana, Vrisha,
Julia, Anna and Pranav; [front row] Aishva,
Preston and Shreya.
[Photo by Meghana Bharadwaj]
From age 10, Wildwood resident
Meghana Bharadwaj has had a passion for
human rights – ignited by annual family
trips to India where she witnessed people
of all ages struggle with food and poverty.
For those people and more across the
world, Bharadwaj took a stand and created
her own nonprofit.
Just for Kidz [jfkorg.org] is built upon
the goal of supporting underprivileged
people worldwide through activism and
service. The 501[c]3 organization currently
has three chapters – one in St. Louis, one
in New York City and one in Ithaca, New
York. It is run by students in high schools
and colleges, including the local chapter
at Lafayette High, from which Bharadwaj
graduated.
Bharadwaj currently is a human rights
major at Columbia University in New York,
but she spent her freshman year at Cornell
University in Ithaca.
The organization tackled its first project
in 2010, raising $1,200 dollars to change
the asbestos-filled roof of Dheenabandu
Ashram, an orphanage in Walajapet, India.
Each project term since, JFK selects an
under-recognized but deserving, youthbenefiting
facility and fundraises for a
major project. The organization’s most
recent project was in Arusha, Tanzania,
in a collaboration with the Good Hope
Orphanage to build a secondary school for
about 700 orphans.
“There’s so much more work to do, and
so many more people to help,” Bharadwaj
said. “I’m just happy to do my part, because
I think we owe it to the communities, and I
owe it to other young people to be able to
activate them and get them engaged.”
JFK strives to connect youth with
humanitarian opportunities and projects
pertaining to topics like poverty, homelessness
and children’s rights. The organization’s
executive team and national board
has around 15 people, with about 20 to 30
people in each chapter.
Locally, it has worked with Angels’
Arms St. Louis to help foster siblings
stay together, and, on Jan. 13, with Winter
Homeless Outreach where members of the
St. Louis chapter delivered blankets, coats,
clothing and hygiene kits to Youth Emergency
Services in St. Louis City.
The Cornell University JFK chapter
spearheaded a program called Stack the
Snacks. Bharadwaj and her colleagues
created in-classroom food pantries that
provided healthy breakfast food options to
children. The organization won a $2,000
grant in April 2017 to launch a pilot version
of the program at Beverley J. Martin
Elementary in Ithaca. The pilot supplied
the in-class pantries for about a month,
with the remaining funds going toward
awareness materials.
JFK’s programs aren’t “one size fits all,”
Bharadwaj said. Each program is tailored
to fit the needs of those receiving the services
through direct communication with
the people and communities in need.
“Before we do anything, my first thing
is to always talk to community members,”
Bharadwaj said. “I always approach them
first before we get experts involved, who
might have worked in a specific department
for years, but also might be more on
the academia side and know more about
the technical aspects than what’s happening
on the ground.”
One of the organization’s goals for 2018
is to spread the Stack the Snacks program
to other areas in New York and St. Louis,
with future sights set on cities like Baltimore,
Maryland. According to Bharadwaj,
the organization already has been in touch
with officials in the Ferguson-Florissant
School District about expanding Stack the
Snacks locally.
“We’re going to bring that program
in there, and tailor it to the needs of that
district,” Bharadwaj said. “We want Stack
the Snacks to be a program where we can
find short-term and long-term resources for
youth in need. Maybe breakfast isn’t the
issue for them and it’s something else they
need, or maybe something else is still missing
from the programs they already have.”
At the end of the day, the program is all
about kids helping kids, no matter where
they live.