Those are the words of Nikhil Goyal, PhD., in his book “Live to See the Day: Coming of Age in American Poverty.”
This book centers on the lives of three impoverished Puerto Rican boys growing up in Philadelphia’s Kensington neighborhood. These boys were failed by the system again and again.
For example, at age 12, one of the boys started a small fire in a trashcan at his school. He was interrogated and arrested, starting him down a path to getting expelled from school and sent to a violent, for-profit disciplinary school. His story is one of many.
Nikhil says this type of treatment “illustrated the inhumanity of the juvenile justice system.” He also talks about how poverty is a form of violence, which is caused by:
Aside from telling these stories in, Nikhil also shares his ideas for how to fix these problems.
Nikhil doesn’t just talk the talk. He worked as a senior policy advisor to Senator Bernie Sanders (D-VT).
His blueprint for how we can eradicate poverty in the richest country in the world includes:
[Child poverty] costs all of us, and ending child poverty will benefit you whether or not you live in those dire and desperate conditions.
In terms of actually raising the cash, Nikhil says that we can easily fund these programs with tax reforms specifically aimed at rebalancing the distribution of tax structures.
Aside from that, investing money into these programs will save money in the long run by reducing public spending in other areas, like prosecuting crimes, keeping people incarcerated, and spending on public assistance programs.
At just 13 years old, Maryland teenager Shrusti Amula set her sights on reducing food waste. She was inspired after attending an agriculture fair, where she began to learn about the massive environmental impact of food waste. It is the third-largest contributor to climate change.
But it was no small tasks. Even though recycling is a widespread initiative, even people in Shrusti’s school weren’t recycling. But she built out her program and added educational aspects that she can share with her peers of all age levels.
Shrusti also knows the power of the political system, and she led a postcard-writing campaign at the state level to help politicians see the importance of composting in public schools. The bill Shrusti and her program supported eventually passed and got funding — a quarter of a million dollars over five years to support composting programs in all schools in Maryland.
In school cafeterias, Shrusti works to install a compost bin next to the recycling and trash bins. A hauler removes the bin and takes it to his facility to turn it into compost.
In addition to composting, Shrusti also focuses on food recovery, which gets unspoiled food onto the plates of those who need it the most. Part of this includes working with businesses to pick up their excess food and taking that food to shelters.
But Shrusti also works to redistribute food in the areas where people need it most, like the schools in her area. By creating a food pantry and mini fridge in the cafeterias, students can place their unopened food items into these designated areas. Those areas are then available to other students to go and take from at their leisure.
This helps students who might not want to eat at their designated lunch time but know they can get something later. It helps food shy or food insecure students grab food for their after-school activities or to take home.
Get involved with Shrusti’s organization by offering your time, treasure, or talent and help her to continue its expansion. She currently composts with 12 schools and just contracted with her county to expand the roof recovery program to all 211 schools in her county.
The Invisible Americans theme by Bridget St. John
Carol Jenkins
Hello, and thanks so much for joining The Invisible Americans Podcast with Jeff Madrick and Carol Jenkins. We address the travesty of child poverty here.
Jeff Madrick
There are nearly 13 million children living in serious material deprivation in America, and we don't see them. They are our invisible Americans, and we plan to change that.
Carol Jenkins
A couple of words about us. The podcast is based on Jeff's book, Invisible Americans: The Tragic Cost of Child Poverty. He's an economics writer, author of seven and co-author of another four books on the American economy.
Jeff Madrick
Carol is an Emmy-winning journalist, activist, and author. Most recently, president of the ERA Coalition working to amend the constitution to include women.
Carol Jenkins
We are longtime colleagues and friends.
The Invisible Americans theme by Bridget St. John
Carol Jenkins
In today's episode, we examined child poverty from two points of view. What should our government be doing to eliminate the ramp and deprivation in the United States? And what can people, indeed what can other children do to eliminate it as well?
Jeff Madrick
We talk with Nikhil Goyal, the author of Live to See the Day: Coming of Age in American Poverty. It profiles three boys trapped in poverty in a Philadelphia neighborhood. And also with Shrusti Amula, who, when she was in seventh grade, started a food recovery nonprofit that is now in place in over 200 schools in her county.
Carol Jenkins
We began with Nikhil Goyal, a PhD sociologist who was a senior policy advisor to Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont. In his book Live to See the Day, he shows how small mistakes by poor kids can turn into a lifetime of damage. He also says we need a Roosevelt-like New Deal that our government needs to step up. Nikhil, thank you so much for being with us today.
Dr. Nikhil Goyal
No, thank you. Thanks for having me.
Carol Jenkins
The book is heartbreaking and hopeful. In it, you say that poverty is violence in its essence. If you could tell us about Ryan, John Carlo and Emmanuel in terms of the violence, in different ways was inflicted on them, these three Puerto Rican boys that you followed in Kensington.
Dr. Nikhil Goyal
I tell the stories of three Puerto Rican kids who grew up in the neighborhood of Kensington in Philadelphia and I start the book off with a story of Ryan Rivera. This young person goes to a middle school called Grover Washington and gets into some mischief with some of his friends, ends up starting a fire in a trash can in school. And fortunately, the fire was quickly extinguished by a staff member. But instead of that child getting restorative justice or care or counseling, he was interrogated, arrested by the police and funneled through the juvenile justice system. And then he eventually expelled from his school and sent to a very violent for profit, disciplinary school in the city.
Carol Jenkins
I think he was only in what, the seventh grade?
Dr. Nikhil Goyal
Yes, only in the seventh grade. He was a month shy of turning 13 years old. He was firmly a child. This was a young person.
Carol Jenkins
Exactly.
Dr. Nikhil Goyal
So I think it illustrates the inhumanity of the juvenile justice system and the criminalization of young people, both by schools as well as by the carceral system. But the other stories in the book, I think, illustrate as well, the violence of poverty and housing insecurity and hunger and gun violence and lacking the basic necessities for a dignified life. I think each of them, in their own right, have endured enormous struggle and experienced the failings of the safety net, and our economy to provide people with a decent standard of living.
Jeff Madrick
What got you interested in this originally, and because we've been working on child poverty now at least, since I guess 2016, and I wrote a book called Invisible Americans that called for an unconditional allowance for poor children. What brought you to this topic?
Dr. Nikhil Goyal
Thanks for mentioning your book. It's a excellent book and one that really, I think, drives home the point of a universal child allowance says one potential solution to the crisis that we face, but I got into this in a couple of ways: (1) I’ve been writing about public education and children for a number of years, and I had been interested in examining the high school dropout crisis. And this was back in 2015, and ended up getting connected to an alternative high school in Philadelphia called El Centro de Estudiantes.
I thought I was going to write story, interview some students and teachers and call it a day. But I quickly realized through my reporting at the school, that there was a much larger story here. It wasn't sufficient to simply report on the happenings of the school, I really had to examine the school as part of a larger political economy, the neighborhood, criminal justice, housing, social welfare, and other institutions at play in the lives of these children and their families. And so the project ended up turning into a long term ethnographic study in Kensington. It was part of my graduate studies at the University of Cambridge. And then I turned that study into this book, which focuses on three of the participants in the study who I thought would be very accessible to readers, as well as be able to stand in their own way, and capture the history and policies that are affecting children and families across this country.
Carol Jenkins
One of the things you call for, Nikhil, because you spend a substantial amount of time talking about the solutions to all of this, illuminating for us the lives of these three boys and their families. I love the family diagram that you have to do. The Mother, the Father, the half brother, the relatives that are all engaged in this portrait of poverty, but you talk about solutions. And it seems that you are asking for a Roosevelt style new deal for the United States of America. Talk with us about that.
Dr. Nikhil Goyal
The end of the book really tries to present a blueprint for how we can finally end the crisis of poverty and economic insecurity in the richest country in the history of the world. And I'm a student of the New Deal of the Great Society of these periods of time where Americans came together and realized that government could actually be a force for the public good. It can be a force to relieve suffering, and inequality. And I think throughout our history, the new deal is this beacon of hope, and shows us what we can do if we put adequate resources, and with the vision and political will to accomplish serious problems.
I call for a series of changes in policies, one that Jeff had referenced earlier, a universal child allowance. We had in 2021, as part of the American rescue plan, the expanded Child Tax Credit, which was a version of universal child allowance, and provided every American parent with either 300 bucks or 250 bucks a month per child. And it dramatically reduced child poverty and economic insecurity and food insecurity and other forms of hardship. But I also call for not just the direct cash transfers, but a building up of public goods. We’ve had decades of privatizing the public sector, whether it's in education and health care, and housing, transit, childcare, among others, I think we really need to provide a public option in the sectors to make sure that people have equitable access to the basic necessities of life.
When we talk about something like public education, making sure that everyone has a well funded neighborhood school that their child can attend with wraparound services, and health and social supports, well paid teachers, restorative justice, universal free school meals. School should be the anchor of the community, and a place where children can be and be safe and be nurtured. And in many communities, it is frankly, the last remaining social welfare institution. We've decimated community health centers, and we've decimated after school and summer programs, and a jobs program, among other programs. But schools are frankly, the one standing institution that care for children. So I think what I call for is a New Deal style agenda to provide these economic goods and rights for everyone. And to really show that if we did it in the 1930s, if we did it in the 1960s, and if we did it during the pandemic, we can do it once again, and then the scourge of poverty and insecurity.
Jeff Madrick
Your book is very well written and persuasive. And as you might suspect, I would agree with much of it. A lot of people are looking for independent childcare services that are independent of school, of course, or supplement school but where’s the money gonna come from? This is not an argument. I like that it's an argument that's made. And that's why the darn child tax credit was discontinued. So what do you think? How do we do that? How do we convince people that child poverty is a priority? I know when I first looked into it, I couldn't believe how little Americans cared about child poverty.
Dr. Nikhil Goyal
The question of how we pay for these programs is one that I think we should acknowledge and talk about openly, because it's one that the media has seized on. You and I have cited the National Academy study, which has found that the annual cost of child poverty ranges from $800 billion to $1.1 trillion. That is an enormous amount of lost money each and every year, in the form of higher spending on public assistance programs, in the form of higher crime and social dislocation, on lower economic productivity. This affects all of us as Americans, whether you're poor, middle class or well off. So that to me, is the first argument that I present to folks that this costs all of us and ending child poverty will benefit you whether or not you live in those dire and desperate conditions.
And then the second point I would make is how we pay for this. When we worked on Build Back Better legislation in 2021, we have paid for us for each and every one of our programs, whether it was raising taxes on the largest and most profitable corporations in this country, whether it was making sure that the wealthiest Americans are paying a little bit more in tax and their fair share, whether it was ending these tax loopholes, like the carried interest loophole, which just enriches hedge fund managers, and some of the wealthiest Americans in this country, at the expense of all of us. There are a series of tax reforms and changes that can be made to rebalance the distribution of tax structures, and to help pay for a number of these programs. And even without those programs, just investing in the programs I'd mentioned, will pay for themselves in the long haul in reducing crime, reducing lack of productivity and reducing public spending on some of these assistance programs, among other things.
Carol Jenkins
Nikhil, you mentioned the book about what happened to Build Back America as project after proposal got whittled down to next to nothing. I belong to a group of women working in the women's space. And as each of the things that they wanted and needed got rejected, there was this sense of hopelessness that overcame us all, I suppose. So, what do we put in place to prevent that from happening again? It’s the numbers game that so far we’re not winning.
Dr. Nikhil Goyal
I think that's very apt and one that I agree with. I would also just mentioned acknowledge that, when we were working on Build Back Better, we had 49 Senate Democrats on board with $3.5 trillion, or almost the entirety of that piece of legislation. And that is a massive sea change from just a few years earlier. I don't think you would have been able to propose a legislation of that scale and say, 2015, or even 2016, or ‘17, and get the same number of Democrats in the Senate on board with that, and then virtually everybody in the house except one member of the Democratic Party on board. So I think that is a great achievement. It makes me hopeful for when there is a trifecta in Washington, when Democrats can control both chambers and the presidency, that there will be an opportunity to actually finish the unfinished business of Build Back Better, and other legislation. There’s enormous lobbying from corporate interests against many of these provisions from private equity, who did not want to see affordable public childcare, among other programs.
I’m hopeful that the country is recognizing the need and necessity for these programs. You will see that urgency captured and capitalized on by states around the country who have recognized that there's paralysis in Washington. Washington is not going to solve our problems, at least in the near future. We're going to invest in the safety net and in social democratic programs. New Mexico, Minnesota, California, Oregon, Washington State, states all over this country that are adopting the programs that did not pass in 2021.
Jeff Madrick
And even adopting child allowances as well.
Dr. Nikhil Goyal
Yes.
Jeff Madrick
Is there anything more we can do? I like to say it's education of the public, but I guess it's more than that. They seem to be incredulous about these – all these ideas. Poverty has always been a difficult issue. I mean, literally, always in America. I'm not asking you to give us the solution. But I thought you might think about it. You might have thought about it a little more?
Dr. Nikhil Goyal
Well, I would answer that partially by talking about messaging properties - in the title of the book and it's a topic I certainly explicitly state and talk about. But I also think it could be helpful to talk in a broader sense about affordability. Whether you're low income or middle income, you're dealing with the affordability crunch, in housing, in childcare, in health care, in virtually every part of life. And so talking about how this vision is going to reduce the cost of living, not just poverty, but reduce the cost of living, I think is a powerful message that can convince people who may not necessarily care about people living in poverty, but care about middle income people. So I think there's a way to talk about this in a broader sense. And I think one of the the tragedies of the Child Tax Credits demise was that a lot of people didn't realize, there was a lot of talk about reducing child poverty, not enough talk about the fact that it made middle income families more economically secure, that they didn't have to worry as much about their bills for that period of time when it was implemented. So I think that those on messaging that would be my recommendation to policymakers and activists.
Jeff Madrick
I think everybody who contributed to Build Back Better deserved congratulations, that includes you, and President Biden, and Build Back Better partly was reducing costs of conventional urgent expenses, such as Medicare, and so forth. Is the message getting through? Is the administration doing enough to get the message through?
Dr. Nikhil Goyal
I think the President has made some important public speeches over the past couple of months about Bidenomics and the need for a robust economic agenda that will address the needs of working families. The challenge obviously is: (1) getting through the noise and making sure that that message sticks. And then (2) I think the affordability crisis to reiterate is one that, unfortunately, has not been dramatically addressed in the past two years, especially in some of those key sectors, because of the demise of Build Back Better.
It’s difficult, I think, for the President and Democrats to craft a message at times when some of those programs did not ultimately reach the finish line. But I think the message about how do we actually go after corporate power and corporate interests that are raising costs, raising inequality, and economic insecurity going after creating this kind of villain narrative about who are the people that are causing the pain and suffering in American society? It's not the people at the bottom, it's the people who run these corporations and the people at the very, very top. I think a message of that would be very helpful. And the President has certainly engaged on that. And I think the strength of the rejuvenated labor movement is a testament to that message and the political conditions that we exist. So I think leaning into the great power of the labor movement as well, is one that I think can hopefully convince voters and workers across the country.
Jeff Madrick
That's a pretty clear sign of hope.
Dr. Nikhil Goyal
I agree.
Carol Jenkins
Nikhil, thank you so much for being with us, for your story of the three boys, for your solutions and for your hope.
Dr. Nikhil Goyal
Thanks to both of you for all your work over many decades and appreciate the engagement with the book.
Jeff Madrick
And we need more books.
Carol Jenkins
Good writing and the next one, Nikhil. Thank you so much.
Dr. Nikhil Goyal
Thanks.
The Invisible Americans theme by Bridget St. John
Jeff Madrick
Shrusti Amula of Montgomery County, Maryland, is a high school senior now, believe it or not, applying to college. But she was 13 years old, a seventh grader, when she founded the Rise N Shine Foundation in 2019.
Carol Jenkins
She noticed how much food was being thrown away at her school and started a food recovery plan that redirects food to the hungry, and a composting program that redirects waste so it doesn't affect the climate. Here's what's possible for each of us to do. Shrusti, thank you so much for joining us today, just so that we can get some idea. Tell us about yourself. You're a senior in high school now and have been an anti-poverty worker for many years?
Shrusti Amula
Thank you so much for having me. I'm a senior in high school, and I founded the nonprofit Rise N Shine Foundation and our main goal is to reduce food waste in our community. And we do that through composting and food recovery programs. We also try to help student volunteers in our community and help promote leadership.
Carol Jenkins
It’s quite a bit and you've been rewarded and awarded for the work. How did you come to this work?
Shrusti Amula
Our county holds an agriculture fair every single year. And then one year, my parents and I went, and we were listening to someone talking about the negative environmental footprint of food waste. And I was just so shocked, because I think me at that time, and a lot of other people just throw away food. And we don't really think about the negative environmental aspect of it. Or we know we shouldn't throw away food, but no one really understands. That's like the third largest contributor to climate change. And I wanted to bring light to that, because I know that I didn't know that and I know a lot of other people don’t know that. So that's how I got inspired to do all the work that I'm doing right now.
Jeff Madrick
Do you know that a lot of your peers would be curious about that? What were you worried they wouldn't be even though you brought it to their attention?
Shrusti Amula
Honestly, in the beginning, I was a little bit worried. Just because students don't really pay attention to small things like this a lot of the time, even our county. Recycling is such a big widespread thing that everyone knows but even people in schools aren't recycling, right? So I was a little bit worried on that part, but once we actually got the program running, we also have an educational aspect to our programs, that basically takes two weeks before we even start the programs in the schools to teach students about it. And they actually catch on really, really well, especially the elementary schoolers, instead of just being bored or confused by it. They're so excited to get started. And they really love that they're able to save the planet. So I was worried in the beginning. But now I think it's been turning out really well. And they've been taking it really well.
Jeff Madrick
Was your goal to save the planet?
Shrusti Amula
I hope so. I hope to, yeah.
Carol Jenkins
Well, you're well on your way to doing it. Tell us about the postcard campaign.
Shrusti Amula
The postcard campaign was in support of a House and Senate bill that was created – We ran it for two years, and basically an overview of the bills. It was inspired by the first composting program I started in 2018. And after seeing what a significant impact it's having on reducing food waste, because at that point, we were collecting around 2000 pounds of food in a single month from an elementary school, which is relatively small compared to the average high school even. But after seeing the amount of food waste we're collecting from the schools and what a big impact it was having on the environment. It inspired state legislators to create and eventually pass a bill to fund a composting program to run in Maryland schools. And then the first year, I think we got around 6000 people from across Maryland to hand write postcards in support of the bill. And that helped the bill eventually get passed. And then last year, we ran it again and we got the support of an additional 11,000 Marylanders and we were able to get funding for that bill. So now we have a quarter of a million dollars over five years to support composting programs in schools in Maryland.
Jeff Madrick
Just quickly, how does your composting program work?
Shrusti Amula
So basically, what we do is right now in the school cafeteria, we have a trash can in the recycle bin, and we just add an additional green bin for food waste. So all students really have to do for the composting program itself is instead of throwing away their food waste in a trash can they’re just putting it into a separate bin. And then I am in contact with the hauler who picks up the food waste from the schools once a week and then he takes it to his own facility, turn it into compost.
Carol Jenkins
That's incredible. I keep saying incredible because we're so impressed. I mean, your organizing skill, Bill's in the legislature, and creating this. Talk to us about the food waste that exists in the schools and how you transport that whatever's left there to the hungry who need it. How do you get that done?
Shrusti Amula
Food Recovery is a program we started a little bit after composting. And we realize the main reason we thought about the program is because after seeing the composting, we see the students are catching on really, really well. We also realize a large amount of the foods that the students are trying to compost is completely unopened uneaten food. And then after that we realized, especially after COVID. There's so many people who are fighting food insecurity, and we can be helping alleviate their problem.
So that's how I came up with the idea with food recovery. And then we opened that in schools and businesses, but they run a little bit differently in each one. In the businesses. We're in contact with different businesses, including Panera, Crumbl Cookies, and even pick up food from grocery stores such as Wegmans and we collect both perishable and non perishable foods that they would have otherwise thrown away because they often throw out food before it actually goes bad. And we donate that to people fighting food insecurities [INAUDIBLE] homeless shelters or food pantries. And then we were trying to take this exact same program to schools.
And the main idea was that we know students are trying to throw away or compost a large part of what they're not eating during lunch. So we're going to take those unopened items and donate them to homeless shelters. And that was the main idea we actually had. But it actually didn't turn out the way we wanted, or the way we expected, instead it had a better result. Because the way we run food recovery is we have a mini fridge for the perishable foods and a share cart for the non perishable foods. And students put their food on that during the lunch period. But a lot of the times like for some students, their lunch period would be at 10:30. And no one's going to be hungry for lunch at that time. So students are able to go throughout the day and grab food off these two places. So we actually found that students are taking the food and there is no food left at the end of the day or even at the end of the week. So it's good that the food is getting redistributed within the own school, because that's who it's intended for in the first place.
Carol Jenkins
And do you think that's because of lack of funds? Or what or why do you think that that happens during the day? The students are clearly hungry.
Shrusti Amula
To some degree it’s because, as I mentioned, some students' lunches are like 10:30, or 11. And it's really early, and people just don't want to eat lunch at that time. But also, a big part of it is that our school days are long, it's tiring, it's straining, and people I guess, are hungry by the end of the day. We also found that it's really helpful for both food shy and food insecure students, because maybe they don't want to grab something, or eat during lunch in front of everyone. Or maybe they needed to take home at the end of the day, because they don't have enough food at home. So they're able to get it off those two.
Jeff Madrick
Is your school a relatively middle class school? Or is it a little bit more poor than middle class?
Shrusti Amula
I don't necessarily know how to explain it. But at least in our county, we give each school a FARM percentage. And a FARM percentage is basically people who qualify for free and reduced meals and aren't able to afford full meals. So it ranges from schools with almost three, four FARM rate percentages, which means that they're relatively higher class. And then some schools are at 70% FARM rate. So they're relatively lower class, so it has a wide range.
Carol Jenkins
How many schools are you doing this in now?
Shrusti Amula
For the composting program, we're running it at 12 schools right now. And the food recovery program, we were actually able to get partner with our county public school system. And now it's gonna be mandatory to run this program. So that's going to be in all 211 schools by this June.
Jeff Madrick
That's great. Have you read about food, child poverty, before you saw composting in action, child hunger, and so forth?
Shrusti Amula
Yeah, to some extent, everyone knows it’s a huge issue. But especially after COVID, I was really able to see people that I know, or people in our community directly impacted by it, even like close to home it is. And now that with the work I've been doing to fight food insecurity, it's been a really mind blowing experience. Because I'm really lucky that my family hasn’t been through that. And obviously, this is a set of experiences that I would have never been able to see otherwise. So it's been an interesting experience, like meet people with a different set of life experiences that haven't been as lucky as I have. And I'm able to directly help them in any way that I can and connect with them that way.
Carol Jenkins
I read recently that you are filling out college applications. How's that process going?
Shrusti Amula
It's been kind of good. I actually just submitted my first one last night.
Carol Jenkins
And what do you plan to major in?
Shrusti Amula
Political science.
Carol Jenkins
Are you planning to run for office yourself?
Shrusti Amula
I really hope to in the future. Yeah.
Carol Jenkins
Thank you so much for all the work you do and for telling us about your programs, legislation, food recovery, food distribution. Really a lot of great work for you not having graduated from high school yet. Tell us how old you were when you first went to that exhibit and learned about the composting.
Shrusti Amula
I've started in my first composting program when I was in seventh grade. So around 12 or 13 years old, and then I opened the nonprofit a year later.
Carol Jenkins
So you had a nonprofit in the eighth grade, right? That is amazing. And I tell you, we really thank you for showing what can be done and what students can do as well to participate in alleviating child poverty. Thank you for tremendous work.
Jeff Madrick
And for recognizing people who are less fortunate than you, I think that's what America needs most.
Shrusti Amula
Yeah. If you're in the position to help people, I feel like you should be doing that.
Carol Jenkins
Thanks, Shrusti.
Shrusti Amula
Thank you.
Jeff Madrick
History will judge the nation's decency in various ways, one of them will surely be the well-being of all of its children. American neglect of its poor children is both inexplicable and deplorable. By basic measures, it has the highest child poverty rate among rich nations in the world. A generation of careful academic research has shown how damaging this has been to children's cognition, health, nutrition, and future wages. We are dedicated to restoring a bright and optimistic future for all children in this land long celebrated for equal opportunity.
Carol Jenkins
Thanks so much for joining us on the Invisible Americans Podcast available wherever you get your podcasts, but we urge you to visit our website for transcripts, show notes, research and additional information about our guests and their work. That's www.theinvisibleamericans.com. Please follow us on social media and our new YouTube channel. And our blog posts are up on Medium as well as our website. That's www.theinvisibleamericans.com Jeff and I will see you the next time.
The Invisible Americans theme by Bridget St. John
Policymaker, Author
Nikhil Goyal is a sociologist and policymaker who served as senior policy advisor on education and children for Chairman Senator Bernie Sanders on the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions and Committee on the Budget. He developed education, child care, and child tax credit federal legislation as well as a tuition-free college program for incarcerated people and correctional workers in Vermont. He has appeared on CNN, Fox, and MSNBC, and written for the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Time, The Nation, and other publications. Goyal earned his B.A. at Goddard College and M.Phil and Ph.D at the University of Cambridge. He lives in Vermont.
Founder of Rise N Shine Foundation
Shrusti Amula, a high school student, is the founder of Rise N Shine Foundation, a youth-led non-profit organization dedicated to reducing food waste through composting and food recovery programs.
Amula started her journey of service at the young age of seven. By the age of 12, after learning how much food is wasted and its harmful effects on our planet, she planned and implemented a composting program that was then adopted by her state for use in schools. To date, Amula has diverted around 100 thousand pounds of food waste from incinerators to become compost instead. The program now cultivates green habits in students, creates leadership opportunities, and helps them become the climate changemakers of tomorrow.
In recent years, she has expanded food recovery in schools and businesses after seeing the amount of uneaten food wasted and rising levels of food insecurity after the COVID-19 pandemic. Given its significant impact on combating hunger, her program has been adopted by her county’s public school system and will be running in all 211 schools by June 2024. Her organization also partners with companies to redistribute food that would otherwise be wasted to homeless shelters and food banks. She donated approximately 200,000 meals to the food-insecure community this past year.
