Shenandoah FFA Chapter President Champions World Hunger Locally and Nationally

Blog Posting from Melissa Lovett, Advisor at Shenandoah FFA


Middletown, IN. – Shenandoah FFA chapter president and high school senior Nathan DeYoung travels to Oregon this weekend to lead several workshops on the issue of world hunger and to encourage other FFA members to get more involved. Specifically, he will be talking about his chapter’s involvement with Foods Resource Bank (FRB), a non-profit that engages people in the US to raise awareness and funding for agricultural development programs overseas as a solution to world hunger. 

“I see Foods Resource Bank as a natural way to get not only more young people, but specifically more FFA members, involved in the broader issues of world hunger,” says DeYoung.

Begun in 1999 through collaboration between several farmers, relief and development organizations, and volunteers, Foods Resource Bank supports agricultural development as a solution for world hunger.

“Most of the world’s 870 million chronically hungry people rely on subsistence farming as their only source of food and income,” says Marv Baldwin, FRB’s President. “Currently FRB has about 57 programs in 34 countries around the world working to support people to be better, more successful farmers, which means they can overcome hunger and have income for basic necessities.”

In 2012, DeYoung and some fellow FFA members were tasked with creating a career development project around FFA’s theme, “World Hunger Starting at Home.” DeYoung learned about Foods Resource Bank from people involved locally at the nearby Elanco headquarters. The Elanco project has been working with FRB since 2008 and has supported agricultural projects in Nicaragua, Cambodia, Bolivia and Mozambique.

DeYoung and his group decided to develop a communications and media plan focused on FRB for their career development project and presented it at a Fall meeting to FRB and Elanco staff and local volunteers.

As a result of that event, the Shenandoah FFA is a committed partner in Elanco’s project and DeYoung hopes that FFA involvement both locally and nationally will grow. Not only will he travel to the FFA convention in Oregon to spend several days talking about world hunger, FRB and FFA, he also plans to run for Indiana State Office this year and share his passion for ending world hunger through his position as an officer.

For more information or to learn more about Foods Resource Bank, contact Kelsey Day at (630) 209-3768, kelsey@foodsresourcebank.org. www.foodsresourcebank.org