The Sodexo Foundation Recognizes Charlottesville Teen's Door-to-Door Effort to Stamp out Hunger
Founder of nonprofit Neighbors-4-Neighbors, 17 year old Nicole P. Muller, to receive national Stephen J. Brady STOP Hunger Scholarship at the 12th Annual Sodexo Foundation Dinner
GAITHERSBURG, Md., June 9, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Nicole P. Muller, 17, of Charlottesville, Virginia, has been dedicated to eradicating hunger since learning that 30,000 individuals in her community needed food bank assistance. Muller is among the five recipients selected from more than 7000 applicants for a national $5,000 Stephen J. Brady STOP Hunger Scholarship by the Sodexo Foundation, the anti-hunger charitable arm of Sodexo, Inc. Muller will be recognized at the Sodexo Foundation's annual dinner on June 9 in Washington, D.C., where she will also receive a $5,000 matching grant for the hunger-related charity of her choice.
Muller jumped at the chance to help solve her community's food shortage problem by starting to knock on her neighbors' doors. From her initial outreach effort to just 12 neighbors, she successfully collected 220 pounds of food that fed 178 people. Shortly after, she founded the Neighbors-4-Neighbors national food drive initiative and wrote friends, family, senators, governors, mayors and congressmen across the country, asking them to donate food and to encourage others to donate as well. Since the program's inception 18 months ago, Neighbors-4-Neighbors has collected 145,000 pounds of food and more than $20,000, providing meals for more than 100,000 people. Muller plans to donate her $5,000 grant to the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank.
"In addition to providing much-needed food to those suffering from hunger, we are also recognizing Nicole for helping people to understand how they can make a difference too," said Robert A. Stern, president, the Sodexo Foundation. "She is a wonderful example of how young people are not waiting to inherit the problem of hunger that has plagued generations of Americans; they're taking action now."
The Sodexo Foundation was created in 1999 to advance Sodexo's commitment to fight hunger and this past January it announced a renewed commitment to ensure that every child in the United States, especially those most at-risk, grows up with dependable access to enough nutritious food to enable them to lead a healthy, productive life. The Stephen J. Brady STOP Hunger Scholarship is named in memory of the Sodexo Foundation's former president, who was an unstoppable champion in the fight to end hunger. Thanks to Steve Brady's efforts, which made these scholarships possible, an emerging generation of leaders is taking up the fight against hunger.
Also named as national Stephen J. Brady STOP Hunger Scholars are: Amy and Emma Bushman, 10, of Cincinnati, Ohio; Jonathan Crider, 17, of Marlow, Okla.; Erika Ferguson, 18, of Northfield, N.J.; and Travis Robinson, 19, of Taneytown, Md.
In addition, 20 Regional Honorees will each receive a $1,000 grant in their name to support the hunger-related charity of their choice. The regional honorees are as follows:
Nick Black, Highlands Ranch, CO
Senior at Mountain Vista High School
Shoniste Dennard, Keller, TX
Senior at All Saints Episcopal School
Rebecca Fawns, Corvallis, MT
Junior at Hamilton High School-Valley Oak
Alex Gee, Chicago, IL
Eighth Grader at Beaubien
Mary Gibson, Strykersville, NY
Junior at Niagara University
Victoria Lee Grumbles, Fort Mill, SC
Senior at Nation Ford High School
Jonathan Hanson, Houston, TX
Senior at Hidden Dell Academy
Zach Harmon, New Berlin, WI
Sixth Grader at Orchard Lane
Colin Hassell, Aberdeen, NJ
Senior at Christian Brothers Academy
Christian Lamb, Guthrie, OK
Freshman at Rockhurst University
Andrew Mezzano, Staten Island, NY
Freshman at Iona College
Monica Murphy, Spring Lake Heights, NJ
Sophomore at Manasquan High School
Arthur Tyler Pratt, Bend, OR
Sophomore at Central Oregon Community College
Inesha Premaratne, Glen Allen, VA
Senior at Henrico High School
Thomas H. Price, Colorado Springs, CO
Junior at William J. Palmer High School
Andrew Nicholas Reuss, Madison, IN
Senior at Shawe Memorial Jr./Sr. High
Victoria Sarbin, Radford, VA
Senior at Radford University
Taylor Marie Scarpinato, Phoenix, AZ
Senior at Pinnacle High School
Raghav Sehtia, San Jose, CA
Sophomore at The Harker School
Tia Smart, Salt Lake City, UT
Fifth Grader at Oakridge Elementary
About Sodexo
Sodexo in North America
Sodexo, Inc. (www.sodexoUSA.com), leading Quality of Daily Life Solutions company in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, delivers On Site Service Solutions in Corporate, Education, Health Care, Government, and Remote Site segments, as well as Motivation Solutions such as Esteem Pass. Sodexo, Inc., headquartered in Gaithersburg, Md., funds all administrative costs for the Sodexo Foundation (www.SodexoFoundation.org), an independent charitable organization that, since its founding in 1999, has made more than $15 million in grants to fight hunger in America. Visit the corporate blog at www.sodexoUSA.com/blog.
Sodexo, world leader in Quality of Daily Life Solutions
Quality of Life plays an important role in the progress of individuals and the performance of organizations. Based on this conviction, Sodexo acts as the strategic partner for companies and institutions that place a premium on performance and employee well-being, as it has since Pierre Bellon founded the company in 1966. Sharing the same passion for service, Sodexo's 380,000 employees in 80 countries design, manage and deliver an unrivaled array of On Site Service Solutions and Motivation Solutions. Sodexo has created a new form of service business that contributes to the fulfillment of its employees and the economic, social and environmental development of the communities, regions and countries in which it operates.
Key Figures (as of August 31, 2010)
Sodexo in the World |
Sodexo in North America |
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15.3 billion euro consolidated revenue |
8.0 billion dollars revenue |
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380,000 employees |
120,000 employees |
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34,000 sites |
10 million consumers served daily |
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50 million consumers served daily |
6,000 clients |
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80 countries |
700 facilities management sites |
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21st largest employer worldwide |
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SOURCE Sodexo Foundation
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