What began as a school assignment two years ago soon evolved into a food drive and has now led to the creation of a nonprofit by local 12-year-old Chloey Fang.
In her effort to help solve world hunger, the Bullis Charter School seventh-grader launched Food Stand in a Park over the summer. Aided by her brother and mom, Chloey holds annual food drives to support a soup kitchen in San Jose.
“When I started my project, I learned that there were 828 million people in the world suffering from hunger, which is a lot,” Chloey said. “I wanted to help lower that number by setting up my food stand. Now, I just want to be able to spread out and … recruit as many people as possible (to help me).”
The Mountain View resident would like other students to join her on her quest. She aspires to have kids around the Bay Area set up food-drive stands in their communities as well.
In June 2022, Chloey held her second food stand to celebrate her birthday. That led to the formation of her nonprofit. In June, she hosted a food drive in Marymeade Park, collecting rice, pasta and canned foods to donate to Loaves and Fishes.
“While I was trying to look for soup kitchens, I just searched ‘soup kitchens near me’ and I found Loaves and Fishes,” Chloey said. “I thought they were the best choice because they served all of Santa Clara County, which means if I want to spread out, I could keep donating to them.”
The Fang family pitches in. Younger brother James, for example, “helped me pass out flyers to spread the word about my food stand,” Chloey said. “He (also) helped set up the (stand).”
She got the word out about this year’s food drive by passing out flyers in several neighborhoods in Los Altos, and her mom posted about it on Nextdoor. Chloey said she also emailed the communications director at Bullis Charter School and asked her to promote the food stand on the school’s Instagram account.
Chloey received enough donations to fill an entire van with food for Loaves and Fishes, and said she hopes to continue growing her nonprofit.
For more information, visit @foodstandinapark on Instagram.
