Global Youth Service Day 2009 is coming up on April 24-26, so to get our CKP teams thinking and planning, we’re serving up a dose of inspiration from GYSD 2008: the Great Vegetable Run.

If YouthServe ran the world, every day would be Global Youth Service Day. This organization, which is based in Birmingham, Alabama, engages young people from ages 13 to 18 years old, in service projects that promote social change.

Here, they describe their work in their own words: “we do all kinds of projects: everything from creating community gardens to tutoring children to clearing vacant lots to building affordable housing to speaking out in support of public transportation to building community across neighborhoods to delivering fresh fruit and vegetables to the homebound. You name it, we have probably done it. And if we haven’t, let’s us know and we’ll put a project together!”

That final project, delivering fresh fruits and veggies to homebound seniors and low-income residents of Birmingham, is fast becoming a Global Youth Service Day tradition.

It all started at one of YouthServe’s  Urban Service Camp’s back in 2002. At a workshop on hunger, a staff member from a local food bank told the young attendees that people who rely on food banks have a hard time getting fresh fruits and vegetables in their diets because most food banks rely in nonperishable items. Inspired, the youth set about taking action.

“The youth heard about a problem and then set out to educate others and take action on the issue. The youth of YouthServe felt empowered by the leadership skills they learned and then felt passionate about a community issue, and they were moved to act,” says Aisha Holmes, YouthServe’s Executive Director.

This year they’ll do what they call the Great Vegetable Run for the seventh time. They’ve gone from delivering 60 bags in 2003 to over 200 in 2008. They’re planning for between 250 and 300 this year.

Their process is not unlike the process of putting together a meal for a Campus Kitchen: they collect donations from local grocers, vendors and growers, and on GYSD 2009, they expect about 120 volunteers to help assemble the bags of produce, which they’ll deliver to community residents in need, especially seniors and children. They identify recipients through partnerships with local social service agencies.

Want to do something similar this year at your school? Holmes advises: “Patience. Do not give up. Plan, plan, plan, and plan some more. Be flexible, as much as you plan SOMETHING will happen!”

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