Youth Food Champion Awards at Bates MLK Day

We invite you to join us for “Young Mainers’ Efforts for Food and Climate Justice”, an in-person presentation with Q&A on January 15 , 2024. The presentation takes place at 1:15pm in Pettengill Hall Room G21 during the annual Martin Luther King Jr Day Observance at Bates College, the theme of which this year is “Food & Food Justice”.

The presentation will begin with the Good Food Council of Lewiston-Auburn’s annual Youth Food Champion Awards which will honor and celebrate the individual contributions toward a healthy local food system in alignment with the Lewiston Auburn Community Food Charter of the 2023 winners:  Brayden Nadeau (Auburn), Houda Aden (Lewiston), Isha Kasai (Lewiston), and Odivio Mariano (Lewiston)!   Ranging in age from 13 to 25, the 2023 winners demonstrate incredible leadership as food systems changemakers:  from growing food for their community and sharing their experiential knowledge with local elected officials about the potential impact of land use decisions on the future of local agriculture, to facilitating meaningful opportunities for their peers to engage with their food system while their deepening cultural and cross-generational connections, and much more! The awards will be followed by a talk with Q&A with Scarlet Labbe-Watson, a young member of Maine Youth for Climate Justice (MCJ), who will discuss Maine’s food sovereignty and climate justice connections.   Reserve free tickets here!

We invite you to also check out all the other incredible educational and arts based programming with the “food & food justice” theme in honor of MLK’s legacy being offered free to the community that day.

Our Thanks To:

• Presenting Sponsors of the 2023 Youth Food Champion Awards:   Bangor Savings Bank, Double Z Farms, & St. Mary’s Nutrition Center  |  Featured Sponsor:  Austin Associates, PA
• Business Contributors to Prize Package for Youth Winners:   Bangor Savings Bank, OTTO Pizza Auburn, & Flagship Cinemas