ownership. When I created Michaels Desserts, I am reminded that I am not doing this for myself, but for other people.
POWER, LOVE, LEARNING, AND ACCESS TO EVERYONE Michaels Desserts is doing its part to alleviate food insecurity, but I wanted to do even more. Two years after founding Michaels Desserts, at the age of thirteen, I started a nonprofit called PLLATE, which stands for Power, Love, Learning, and Access To Everyone. PLLATE is an initiative where we create snack packs for kids who may be experiencing food insecurity. The snack packs are small bags of healthy, proteinforward, nonperishable foods such as granola bars, nuts, dried fruit, and beef jerky. We know that a lot of kids might eat breakfast but not eat lunch and/or may not know whether they will eat dinner. So the snack packs can be eaten when needed—when a child is hungry, waiting for his or her next meal. Let me break down PLLATE even further: P ow e r— Giving people the power to be able to feed themselves. This means not just giving people food, but giving people the knowledge to be able to grow their own food, cook the food they have, or access the food that will sustain them. Lov e — I want people to feel loved
when they interact with PLATTE. Like
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someone cares about them enough to help with their basic needs. Lea rning — Everyone learns. I want to teach people without access to food how to get it and the people with access to food how they can help others. ATE— Access to everyone. Food should be accessible to everyone who needs it. PLLATE donates to local food pantries and organizations that work closely with the community. Our goal is for snack packs to reach those who need them most. I was proud that we were able to extend PLLATE to after-school programs that were then able to distribute to families and children in need. This had always been a goal of mine. Between Michaels Desserts and PLLATE, we have donated more than 500,000 meals. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of children possibly facing food insecurity moved from one in six to one in seven, as reported by Feeding America, a nationwide network of food banks. I was very proud of that progress because it meant that the collective effort by those of us working to eradicate food insecurity was moving the needle. There have been some setbacks since then because of the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s understandable because none of us could foresee how the pandemic would affect people accessing food. But as we turn the corner on COVID19, I am confident that we will have even greater success in lowering the number of those who face food insecurity every day.
