Stop Hunger Classroom Challenge & Sodexo Stop Hunger Foundation Youth Grants | Youth Service America

Stop Hunger Classroom Challenge & Sodexo Stop Hunger Foundation Youth Grants | Youth Service America

Historical status

This is an archive entry for the completed 2026 Stop Hunger programs page published by Youth Service America (YSA) in partnership with the Sodexo Stop Hunger Foundation. The official page now announces the 2026 Stop Hunger Classroom Challenge winners, and it says that the Sodexo Stop Hunger Foundation Youth Grants application is closed for 2026. The page does not announce a later application cycle. There is therefore no current deadline to invent and no open application to submit through this listing.

The closed Classroom Challenge deadline is retained in the front matter as the real deadline for the cycle represented by this page. historicalReference = true tells the site that this is a usable reference entry, not an active opportunity whose date has been overlooked. The official destination remains the YSA Stop Hunger Programs page: ysa.org/grants/sodexo.

At a glance

The amount in this listing refers primarily to the Classroom Challenge because that is the program named in the opportunity slug and the page’s published finalist awards include a top award of $2,500. The same official page also describes the separate Youth Grants track, whose award is $1,000. They should not be treated as one application or one interchangeable grant.

What the Classroom Challenge was

The Stop Hunger Classroom Challenge asked K–12 classrooms to improve an existing effort addressing hunger in their school or community. YSA’s description emphasizes food drives, school pantries, and backpack programs as examples of starting points. The goal was not simply to run a one-day collection event. Students were expected to identify gaps, propose improvements, take action, and make the work more student-led, impactful, and sustainable.

The official page describes the challenge as flexible across grade levels. That flexibility matters for interpreting the award: a classroom did not need to use one prescribed project model. A food pantry, a backpack program, a food recovery effort, or another local response could be the foundation, provided students were involved in strengthening it. Participating classrooms received a Teacher Resource Guide, access to YSA toolkit resources, and support during the process.

The completed cycle produced a clear award structure. YSA reports five finalists with awards ranging from $750 to $2,500. It also reports that 12 classrooms were recognized nationally, including seven semi-finalists receiving $250 or $500. The top listed award went to Nanakuli High & Intermediate School in Waianae, Hawaii. The other named finalists were Mission High School in San Fernando, California; Southwest High School in El Centro, California; Southern University at Shreveport in Shreveport, Louisiana; and Boys & Girls Clubs of the Coastal Plain in Winterville, North Carolina.

Those examples show the kind of work the challenge recognized: connecting food access with sustainability, expanding a school food pantry, strengthening a student-led pantry, organizing food drives and nutrition education, and reducing food waste by redirecting unused meal items. They are useful examples for educators planning a future classroom service project, but they are not evidence that a new Classroom Challenge is currently open.

What the Youth Grants track was

The Sodexo Stop Hunger Foundation Youth Grants were a separate opportunity on the same YSA page. For the completed cycle, YSA described $1,000 grants for youth-led awareness, direct service, advocacy, and philanthropic projects focused on ending childhood hunger in local communities.

The official eligibility description was specific:

• Applicants were youth changemakers ages 5 to 25.
• Applicants had to live in the United States, and the activities had to benefit children and families in the United States.
• Projects had to be youth-led and focused on childhood hunger.
• A project had to engage at least 100 other youth as volunteers. YSA counted project planners, project leaders, and day-of volunteers within that volunteer model.
• Projects could take place in K–12 schools, colleges and universities, afterschool programs, youth organizations, nonprofits, or faith-based organizations.
• Applicants were encouraged to create meaningful participation opportunities for peers who are often served but not usually asked to serve, including youth from low-income communities, young people of color, youth with disabilities, youth experiencing homelessness, youth in foster care, English Language Learners, LGBTQ+ youth, and youth in military families.

The program was interested in more than immediate relief. YSA says it especially wanted projects with a sustainability component or a long-term approach to ending hunger. That could mean expanding an existing program, building a system that continues after the service period, or creating a practical way for local partners and young people to keep participating.

Historical application requirements

The Youth Grants application page remains useful as a record of what applicants were asked to prepare, even though the official landing page now says the application is closed. The form asked for information about the youth project leader, including age and the applicant’s connection to the childhood-hunger issue. A parent or guardian section was included for the youth applicant, and a sponsoring organization had to support implementation, accept the grant check, and distribute funds for the approved project budget. The sponsoring organization had to be tax exempt, although YSA stated that it did not have to be a 501(c)(3).

The application also required a project mentor from the sponsoring organization. That mentor was expected to advise the youth leaders, help with organizational coordination, and support implementation while leaving important project decisions with the youth. This is an important distinction for future planning: an adult sponsor could provide structure and safety, but the application was designed around youth ownership rather than an adult-written project carried out by students.

Project responses had to describe the service idea, location, key milestones, volunteer roles, community need, measurable goals, partnerships, and plans for continuing the work. Applicants were asked to include a numerical goal and an estimate of how many people the project would help. Grantees were expected to report outputs such as meals or meal equivalents and the number of people helped. The application also asked how the team would recruit at least 100 other young people and how it would include peers who had not usually been invited to volunteer.

The budget section described the $1,000 grant and required an itemized budget. Allowable expenses included project supplies, recruitment and promotional materials, art or gardening supplies, baskets for transporting meals, backpacks for a feeding program, local transportation for youth volunteers, and postage, copying, or printing directly related to the project. Recognition items and refreshments were permitted within the limit described by the application. The form did not permit applicants to use the award for food or supplies directly donated to recipients, expensive equipment used only once, direct payments to individuals, unexplained miscellaneous expenses, routine daily operations, indirect administrative rates, or costs unrelated to the proposed project.

The application also included commitments for awardees: a representative would attend a required orientation call, the project would be registered before implementation, and a post-project impact report would be submitted. Applicants had to affirm that their responses were original to the applicants and not AI-generated. These details matter when using the page as a model for a future application: a copied or generic response would not satisfy the program’s stated emphasis on youth voice and original planning.

How to use this page now

Do not use the external link as if it were an open application. Start there only to check whether YSA has posted a new cycle, revised the program structure, or published a new deadline. The present official page confirms the completed Classroom Challenge results and the closed Youth Grants application, but it does not provide a later round.

For an educator preparing for a possible future Classroom Challenge, begin with an existing hunger-related effort rather than a disconnected idea. Map what students already know about the local need, identify one process that is not working well, and let students propose a measurable improvement. Examples include making a school pantry easier to access, improving communication with families, reducing food waste, or strengthening a backpack program’s handoff process. Record student decisions, implementation evidence, and the result of the change. A future challenge may change its submission requirements, so treat the old Teacher Resource Guide and toolkit references as preparation aids, not as current instructions.

For a youth group preparing for a possible future Youth Grants call, confirm the age, location, sponsoring-organization, mentor, youth-leadership, volunteer, and budget rules on the new official page before writing. Build the volunteer plan early. Reaching 100 youth requires more than counting people who receive services: the team needs identifiable peers who plan, lead, recruit, document, or perform project work. A credible plan should explain how the group will invite young people who are often excluded from service opportunities and how each role will contribute to the stated hunger goal.

The project should also be more durable than a single photo opportunity. A community garden, a food-recovery partnership, a budget-friendly cooking series, a benefits-access education effort, or a better-supported school pantry can all be framed around continuation. The best preparation explains what will still operate after the funded activity ends, who will own that next phase, and what evidence will show that the project helped.

Archived timeline and status check

The front matter preserves the completed Classroom Challenge deadline associated with this entry. The current official page no longer presents that cycle as an application window; it presents the winners instead. The Youth Grants application page records the completed cycle’s application deadline and project-period instructions, while the landing page now labels the application closed.

Because no next cycle is announced on the verified YSA page, this entry does not convert the old deadline to rolling, add a speculative future date, or imply that late applications are accepted. Readers who need a current opportunity should check YSA’s grants and campaigns pages for a newly published call. Until YSA announces one, this page is best used for program design, eligibility research, award context, and lessons from the named winners.

Practical planning checklist for a future round

1. Confirm that YSA has announced a new cycle and read the new official rules.
2. Decide whether the project belongs under the Classroom Challenge or the Youth Grants track; they serve different applicant groups and have different award structures.
3. Define the hunger-related problem with local evidence and identify the existing activity that the project will improve.
4. Give students or youth leaders clear decision-making authority and document the roles they actually perform.
5. Secure the sponsoring organization and adult mentor early if the future Youth Grants rules retain those requirements.
6. Build a volunteer recruitment plan that distinguishes planners, leaders, service volunteers, and beneficiaries.
7. Set a measurable output and a way to track people helped, food recovered, meals or meal equivalents, or another relevant result.
8. Draft a continuation plan before drafting the budget. Explain what happens when the grant period ends.
9. Review every budget line against the new official rules and exclude prohibited direct-beneficiary supplies, unrelated overhead, and unexplained miscellaneous costs.
10. Submit only through a current YSA application link after confirming that the application window is open.

The official source is the final authority for any future round. This archive entry records what YSA published for the completed cycle and makes the closed status explicit so that teachers, youth leaders, and sponsoring organizations do not mistake historical award information for a live application invitation.