BALTIMORE — The fruits of their labor could one day become food for their community.
That's the hope behind the project created by these STEM students at Green Street Academy.
"I think the mobile food pantry is a really good concept when you think about it," said India Acree.
Acree was on board right away, but it took some time for others to get on board.
"I was a little skeptical of the idea at first because I always thought like a food pantry shouldn't be mobile should be like in a building with one person," said student Josiah Bryant. "But as we're going on with the project and seeing there was also the COVID-19 pandemic and how we have mostly food deserts around nowadays, everyone was like mobile is probably the right way to go."
Once they agreed, they were off creating for Samsung's 'Solve for Tomorrow' competition.
Each year the electronics company calls on public school students to dream, develop and build solutions to problems facing their communities.
Their STEM teacher Harry Preston says it was their passion for the project that pivoted them to the finals.
Their mobile food pantry beat out thousands of other projects from across the county.
They're in the top ten and have already won $50,000.
"We again focused on the service who we were able to provide to not so much the competition," said Preston. "So for us it was more about being able to provide a service for the community, being able to address an issue that was vitally important."
Khalel Frazier helped with construction of the pantry. It's an automated mobile emergency food pantry with solar panels, built using stem technology like coding.
"When I heard about the food pantry, it brought joy to me because it's like, oh I'm actually helping out people who are just doing something that's not just for myself. I'm actually helping people in the community," said Frazier.
Preston says their goal is to not only create the pantry, but come up with a global solution to get food to people who need it most and for students like Jaylin Liggins, it's personal.
"I know that for me and my family this food pantry would be a big change because we have to walk to get groceries and usually a long walk," Liggins said. "So I think that with this food desert it might actually help."
They've already won $50,000 for their school, but you can help local students from Green Street Academy win the grand prize of $100,000.
Voting ends April 23rd. The national winners will be named on Tuesday, April 26th. Click here to vote!
