{"id":17406,"date":"2021-05-19T09:00:55","date_gmt":"2021-05-19T13:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/?p=17406"},"modified":"2021-05-19T10:05:55","modified_gmt":"2021-05-19T14:05:55","slug":"arizona-student-naina-misra-wins-5000-vegetarian-resource-group-scholarship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/2021\/05\/19\/arizona-student-naina-misra-wins-5000-vegetarian-resource-group-scholarship\/","title":{"rendered":"ARIZONA STUDENT NAINA MISRA WINS $5,000 VEGETARIAN RESOURCE GROUP SCHOLARSHIP"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Naina wrote, \u201cIn my 9th<\/sup> grade year, I noticed\nthat students at my school were unable to engage in science due to the minimal\neducational opportunities present in my rural town in northwestern Arizona. Also, many\nstudents had not yet established a connection with the intricacies of the\nnatural world outsides of sports such as hunting and fishing. I knew that I\nneeded to find a way to interest students in the ecological sciences and then\ndevelop an appreciation of the beauty and peace of nature outside of these\ndestructive practices.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI first applied for and won a $500 grant from the Sodexo Stop Hunger Foundation, which I used to buy plants, supplies, and tools. I assembled a team of high school students and began breaking ground in a deserted area at the edge of my school\u2019s campus. At first, the rocky terrain, insecure water connection, and oven-like climate threatened to stall the garden\u2019s progress. However, I planned a winding canal system to store and supply water for the trees, bushes, and crops growing in the garden, and installed a greenhouse and raised beds for various varieties of plants.\u201d \u2026 \u201cWe have grown peaches, plums, apples, blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, tomatoes, cilantro, spinach, broccoli, onions, corn, and okra to name a few \u2026 Any students who have worked in the garden and helped during our planting season can take home and give away the produce they have grown.\u201d   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen I go to college at the end of this year, I plan to\nentrust the Garden to my school for its upkeep. I have established a garden\nclub which under the supervision of my science teacher will look after it.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn my 11th<\/sup> grade, I also pioneered a salad bar\nin my school district cafeteria.\u201d \u201cI conducted a survey of all students and\nfaculty at my high school to determine the impact a new salad bar would have on\nour school cafeteria … I sent a memo to the school district administration to\nintroduce my plan. I then assembled a salad bar needs assessment committee that\nincluded my culinary teacher, faculty members, and student representatives. We\nbrainstormed ideas for the salad bar\u2019s offerings, determined the new lunch line\nprocedures, and set the school days the salad bar would be in operation. I\nscheduled a meeting with my district\u2019s principal and superintendant where I\npresented the survey results, and addressed my plan to move forward with the\nsalad bar … I also proposed the equipment necessary to store and serve the\nsalads. After hearing my ideas, the administration quickly approved the project\nand allocated funds to purchase a two-door self-serve salad station for the\ncafeteria.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMonday, March 16th<\/sup> was the Salad Bar\u2019s Grand\nOpening Day. Flyers were sent to students across the school district, and a\nschool newspaper article detailing the unveiling of this new cafeteria addition\nwas already in circulation. Then, the COVID-19 pandemic ground all school\noperations to a halt. Classroom learning migrated to the cloud, and months\npassed without a single student stepping foot on campus. My vision to implement\na salad bar at my school had been paused \u2026 (Then) I was elated to hear that I\ncould begin the salad bar in a new school year, but knew that I would have\nto  recalculate its setup. Once the school\nyear began, I met with the salad bar needs assessment committee and decided to\nsend an online order form every morning to faculty and students, enabling them\nto select the options they would like on the salad bar, and then coordinate\nwith the culinary department to pre-assemble the individualized salads. As I\nworked with other culinary students in the morning, reading orders and\nportioning salads while wearing gloves, masks, and keeping a safe distance, I\ngained hope in the fact I could make my goals a reality.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy school was a tough place to implement a salad-bar\nproject as most of the students and staff come from ranching and farming\nbackgrounds, and meat is always a part of their diet.\u201d The salad bar was open\nto students from September to December last year. Then the salad bar was only\nfor faculty due to the COVID-19 restrictions. After its success, it was\nimplemented for everyone. \u201cThis week I began the salad bar in person and\nparticipants can now order and pick up their salads in my school\u2019s cafeteria.\nEarlier approximately 200-300 students ordered from the salad bar, and the most\npopular toppings were the roasted nuts and cranberries, and crunchy spiced\nlentils. Previously, all of the salads were distributed in pickup boxes to\nprevent COVID-19 contamination. Now, my school district has allowed the salad\nbar to operate-in-person. I am working with other students at my school to take\norders and create the salads-in-person in my school cafeteria.\u201d Naina made sure\nthat options such as nuts and baked tofu were available. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Naina hopes to become a neurosurgeon and recommend\nvegetarian diets to her patients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The deadline for the next scholarship contest for high\nschool seniors graduating in 2022 is February 20, 2022. To see rules and other\nscholarship winners, visit vrg.org\/student\/scholar.htm<\/a>   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To support additional scholarships and internships, donate\nat vrg.org\/donate<\/a>, call (410) 366-8343,\nor send donations to VRG, P.O. Box 1463, Baltimore, MD 21203. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Naina wrote, \u201cIn my 9th grade year, I noticed that students at my school were unable to engage in science due to the minimal educational opportunities present in my rural town in northwestern Arizona. Also, many students had not yet established a connection with the intricacies of the natural world outsides of sports such as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17406"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17406\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17465,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17406\/revisions\/17465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}