Dumbarton Middle School student Kate Carrera is mixing beauty with charity. The 6th grader makes lip scrub at home from sugar, coconut oil and flavoring, then sells it to her friends and donates half the proceeds to the Baltimore Hunger Project.
The local nonprofit founded by Lynne B. Kahn tries to bridge the gap between Friday and Monday for school kids who don’t get enough to eat at home.
“Every Friday, our volunteers take weekend provisions to local elementary schools who have families in crisis,” the website explains. “Our food packs are discretely slipped into children’s backpacks on Friday by their guidance counselor, so they can return to school Monday nourished and ready to learn.”
Kate and her mom, Melanie Brent Carrera, had volunteered with Kahn in the past when they packed lunches for women’s shelters. Kate said when she heard about the project for students, she wanted to do something.
“I’m so fortunate to have food,” said Kate, a former West Towson Elementary student. “I wanted to help other kids who are hungry.”
Kate’s Great Lip Scrubs sell for $2 each ($1 goes to the nonprofit) and come in cinnamon, vanilla, chocolate fudge brownie, orange, lemon and peppermint. The 12-year-old has donated about $30 so far, she said. (Sorry, she’s not taking online orders. She’s got her hands full as it is.)
“I am thrilled that she not only has compassion for those less fortunate, but that she is willing to make a real effort to make a difference by giving up some of her earnings,” Brent Carrera said of her daughter. “At such a young age, I am quite sure I was only thinking about myself!”
Kahn says the Baltimore Hunger Project supports 61 elementary school kids every Friday — 46 at Fallstaff Elementary in Baltimore City, five at Church Lane in Randallstown and 10 at Lyons Mill Elementary in Owings Mills.
“Our goal is to support hundreds of children each week during the school year. We have over 100 dedicated volunteers who regularly deliver to the schools, purchase the food, help assemble the food packs, write our newsletter, email our donors, manage our social media accounts and more,” Kahn said. “More than 95 percent of the monies raised go towards the program and purchase of food. We will be moving into our new location in early March — all that overhead will be covered by a three year grant we received.”
To learn more about the Baltimore Hunger Project, click here. And if you know of someone in the Towson area who’s working to make a difference, let me know, and he or she might be featured in an article. You can contact me here.