Mahatma Gandhi said,“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.”
Two high school seniors in Miami-Dade and Broward honored at the recent Miami Herald’s Silver Knight Awards found their calling by feeding those in need.
Alexandra O’Dowd of St. Thomas Aquinas High School designed and developed The Greenhouse Project, the school’s first hydroponic tower garden, named Fresh STArt Garden. The self-irrigating, sustainable garden does double duty – as a teaching tool for middle and high school students about climate change and eco-farming, and as a source for vegetables and herbs that are donated to local food pantries and church parishes.
When she was in the fourth grade, Gabriela Garity (above right) of Carrollton School of the Sacred Heart started the Casserole Project to provide home-cooked meals to people who are homeless. Once a month, a hearty, nourishing recipe is shared with volunteer families, who bring the frozen casseroles to school for delivery to the Missionaries of Charity soup kitchen in downtown Miami and the Branches social service agency. During quarantine, the project has focused on volunteers making thousands of sandwiches for those in need.
For Garity’s recipes, see Carrollton Casserole Project at left.
