CHARLOTTESVILLE (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) — In an effort to fight food insecurity in their communities, teens from all six Boy & Girls Clubs in Central Virginia have launched food drives and bake sales around the region as part of an organization-wide service project called “BGCCVA Teens Give Back.”

Chief Operating Officer Michael Gulley told Cville Right Now the project was a part of an expansion and revamp of the Club’s annual “Youth of the Year” program, a year-long youth developmental that runs across all of the organizations chapters nationwide. Part of that program revolves around community service, Gulley said, so the teens in each club in Central Virginia got to select what community service project they wanted to as a part of the program.

Gulley said the teens decided to center their project around food insecurity, a cause he said they selected without any adult input.

“The staff member facilitated the conversation but did not provide any input as far as the ideas or the types of projects,” he said. “This was feedback given directly from them.”

Jelani Simpson, the Club Area Director for Charlottesville and Albemarle, said it was great to see the teens from different clubs collaborate and brainstorm together during their Zoom calls to discuss the project.

“Within their communities, they know the need,” he said. “They know what the community needs just being within their communities.”

Gulley said the projects they came up with were “all teen directed.” The club at Cherry Avenue in Charlottesville and Southwood in Albemarle ran bake sales to benefit New Beginnings Christian
Community Food Pantry and the Salvation Army, with their first sales already selling out. The Albemarle Campus Club is holding fundraiser where they’ve sold loaded nachos and hot chocolate cups to benefit the Loaves and Fishes Pantry. The Boys & Girls Clubs in Orange, Madison and Scottsville are all running food drives for local food pantries as well.

Simpson said he’s had the opportunity to go out to a few clubs and talk with members and staff about their efforts. He said he felt a strong sense of belonging from the teens and talked about was a particular group of young men at the James River Club in Scottsville that he was with on Monday that spent part of the day dropping off donation tubs at local businesses around the town.

“They felt some ownership going in and saying, ‘Hey, this is what we’re doing. We’d appreciate your support,'” Simpson recalled. “‘We really look forward to doing this to help our community,’ was the message they gave. So just seeing them take pride in giving back and ownership is what I’m seeing from all the teens across our organization.”

Gulley said efforts like these are all about making sure teens know they can be agents of change in their community.

“They don’t have to wait until they’re an adult to make positive changes in their communities,” he said. “That’s why we work with our teens and that’s why we have some of the programs that we have, because a lot of them have a lot of great ideas, and we’re just trying to help them find their voice and be change agents in their communities.”

The clubs in Charlottesville and Albemarle will be announcing additional fundraising efforts through social media, while the Orange Club’s food drive ended on Monday and the Madison and James River Clubs’ drives will last through Friday.