WEBVTT

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(Narrator) While inflation 
is expected to ease this year,

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New Yorkers are still feeling the pinch
at grocery stores.

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One group of teens is stocking fridges
with fresh produce

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to help combat food insecurity.

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Meet Skye, the 16 year old student

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who started the Food Security Club
at Stuyvesant High School.

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(Skye) This is just a routine delivery
for the Food Security Club at Stuyvesant

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where we take the excess food
that's not eaten from the cafeteria,

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and we collect that
over the course of a week,

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and then we come to deliver it
to places like this,

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like the community fridge
and also food pantries

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- I'm Skye.
- I'm Max,

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and we're the Stuyvesant
Food Security Club

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That door leads you to cafeteria
here at Stuyvesant.

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Over here's the table where students
can leave their extra food

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that they don't eat 
for us to collect after school.

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So we just finished 
counting and collecting all the food

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so we can take stock 
of everything we have.

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Now we're gonna go over
and store this food

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in the cafeteria fridges over there.

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(Narrator) The club
has about 30 student members

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donating around 300 pounds of food to date

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to low income communities 
and NYCHA housing.

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Nearly 1.5 million New Yorkers
are food insecure,

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including 1 in 4 children.

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So when Skye got in touch with me
from Stuyvesant High School,

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I said, "First of all, of course
we would love to accept

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all of this excess food
that you're collecting."

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And it doesn't need to be, 
you know, a government thing

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or coming from a big non-profit,

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it could just be a group of kids
who care about their fellow neighbors.

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(Narrator) These teens 
are encouraging students

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from other schools to join in, like Maya,

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a 17-year old from Trinity School
on the Upper West Side

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who decided to drop off meals 
after cooking excess in class.

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(Maya) We aren't mindful of our food waste
or what we are doing

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not realizing that what we can do 
can actually help so many people

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and also saving food like this 
helps the environment too.

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(Narrator) There are over 
one hundred community fridges

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scattered across New York City,

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which provide a unique space
for neighbors to connect.

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(Sandra) People that 
didn't know each other before,

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were strangers,

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now they became family.

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That's the way I see it.

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(Narrator) On the Upper East Side,
I'm Linda Galdino, News 4 New York.