Report - YOFO

Vin Stokes ,the Member of Youth Parliament for St. Helens, went to OurPlace which is a multipurpose communal hub in The centre of Huyton to attend a YouthFocus (YOFO) event.

This event held several workshops surrounding the theme of ‘Raising Your Voice’ to stimulate change in your constituency. This, too, is where the 2024 YouthStarAwards took place.

Furthermore, Vin was fortunately entered into this competition anonymously by another D/MYP and was voted ‘campaign of the year’.

He took this on as incentive that his campaign ‘FeedTheNeed’ was working to change the lives of his constituents.

For those that are not aware, FeedTheNeed is a youth-led activist movement which aims to reduce food poverty in St. Helens.

Vin was credited publicly for his movement from Planning and waiting for MPs to respond to activism (the policy or action of using campaigning to bring about political or social change).

This is shown through the two current impact projects of FeedTheNeed: repurposing food waste and educating about food banks. This is where we ask schools, small business and larger chains to allocate as much edible food waste as possible so that we can transport it to Food banks.

So far we have delivered 3 packages of around 30 meals to a food bank called Teardrops. This impact project has been a huge success as FeedTheNeed imprints a lasting legacy in St. Helens.

In this, our role is to act as a medium between businesses and food banks to restore the relations within our community; something so essential in this Cost-Of-Living crisis.

The 2nd impact project, education, focuses more so on the young people of St. Helens. We have decided to focus on key stage 4 and above (15-21 year olds) as we believe that they are most susceptible to food poverty as they tend to be introduced to larger sums of money: bonds, inheritance, gap years ext.

We aim to talk to them and break down the stigma that comes with Foodbanks. The aim is to educated them through interactive sessions and posters so that they know how to apply to a food bank ,to receive that help, and how to budget and save money ,so they aren’t in a position where they need that additional support.

Those are the two impact project we focus on and aim to expand in the near future,

Be sure to keep in touch if you are interested in our Campaign as we all aspire to FeedTheNeed!!