Deadline: February 6, 2026
Applications are open for the Stop Hunger Classroom Challenge 2026. Help your students make hunger projects better and answer the question: If you could give where you live, how would you help end hunger? Join classrooms across the country improving familiar efforts like food drives and backpack programs. Students lead, you guide, and YSA provides simple tools to help you get started.
Each year, millions of children in the United States face hunger. This challenge invites K–12 classrooms to take something your school already does to help—like a food drive, a backpack program, or another hunger project, and make it stronger, smarter, and more student-led.
Benefits
- Simple and flexible for any grade level
- Focuses on student voice and leadership
- Strengthens projects schools already do
- Celebrates both short-term and long-term replicable solutions
- National recognition for 29 classrooms – 24 Semi-Finalists will receive $250 or $500, and 5 Finalists will receive $750, $1,000, $1,500, $2,000, or $2,500
- Finalists pitch to the Sodexo Stop Hunger Foundation team for grants up to $2,500
Eligibility
- Open to schools in the United States.
- They invite K–12 classrooms to lead the projects.
Application
- Sign Up: It takes just a few minutes to join the challenge. Sign up by February 6, 2026.
- Hold One Classroom Conversation: Use the short prompts to help students reflect on hunger and imagine how to make their existing efforts more impactful.
- Students Take Action: Your students plan and carry out a small project between November and February, then submit a short (up to 3-minute) video by March 6, 2026.
After you sign up, YSA will send you a short Teacher Resource Guide and a project toolkit to help your students lead a meaningful discussion and take action.
For more information, visit Stop Hunger Classroom Challenge.
