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Three students from Dougherty Valley High School in San Ramon were recognized by the county Board of Supervisors Monday as this year’s youth Humanitarians of the Year as part of the county’s Martin Luther King Jr. ceremony.
Brothers Noor Tozul Ahmad and Robi Tozul Ahmad, along with their close friend Vedant Kathrani, are the founders of the nonprofit organization PlateToPeople, which rescues food waste from local schools and uses it to provide meals to homeless shelters in partnership with two other local nonprofits.
The teens’ existing efforts and impact with PlateToPeople, along with their broader global vision of ultimately seeking to end world hunger, were recognized as consistent with the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. and the messages reflected at this year’s 46th annual ceremony and Humanitarian Awards.
“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character,” King said on video as part of his famed “I have a dream” speech played at the county’s commemorative ceremony Monday.
“That made his speech stand out the way it is because he’s pretty much debunking how the system was going on back then,” said Robi Tozul Ahmad in a presentation at Monday’s ceremony.” “In plate to people, we are focused towards a global goal of ending world hunger and also ending poverty. So we want to get the youth involved, and we want to spread on Martin Luther King Jr.’s message.”
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While much has changed in the decades since King’s life and death, the Tozulahmad brothers have firsthand experience with dire humanitarian conditions as well as hunger prior to their arrival in the United States and the affluent San Ramon Valley.
“Noor and I used to be homeless for a while because we were – basically I can say sold off – and we were sent to Malaysia, and those people met some bad people so they made us do bad business and we didn’t like that,” Robi Tozul Ahmad said. “So we ran away from the house and we had to beg in the street for food, and we knew how it felt to be hungry and what it felt like. So that’s why we want to end world hunger.”
Their firsthand experience with poverty and hunger serves as a motivation to grow the organization as far as possible as well as attend to its day-to-day operations at the local level in its current form according to both brothers.
“I don’t want anyone to go hungry ever, because I know how it felt ,and I know how it is to be homeless and to rely on scraps of food, and I don’t want anyone to do that,” Noor Tozul Ahmad said. “I want to create a world where everybody will have access to healthy, free food.”
Kathrani also emphasized the way in which the organization’s mission is part of King’s legacy and efforts towards equality.
“Back in middle school I did a deep study on his speech ‘I have a dream’ and the line that stood out to me was ‘we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal,'” Noor Tozul Ahmad said. “And to us, working at PlateToPeople, we believe everyone deserves to eat good meals and have a healthy body.”
Kathrani said that he was the brothers’ “first friend” upon their arrival in the United States, and that their close relationship made it natural for him to be part of the inception of PlateToPeople.
“It was really insightful working with them and seeing how much they’ve changed and how much they’ve grown, and even seeing how much they’ve adapted to the environment,” Kathrani said.
Part of that environment, however, was the vast amounts of food waste seen within their new home in San Ramon, in areas ranging from local schools to restaurants – the latter of which was especially stark while working at restaurant jobs.
“What I see usually is people don’t even eat the food at all and it’s perfectly good,” Noor Tozul Ahmad said. “They just throw it away, and it breaks my heart to see what they’re doing,” and it’s not only bad for the environment, but they don’t see the bigger picture, like what they can do with that food if they had not thrown it.”
In its current form, PlateToPeople functions by retrieving food waste from local schools and redistributing it to homeless shelters in partnership with RecycleSmart and White Pony Express.
“We partnered with an already established nonprofit called White Pony Express and they basically just package our food and then they deliver it to local homeless shelters so they have a chance to eat healthy nutritious meals,” Kathrani said.
However the goal is to expand the organization and its mission from the local to the global level, and to facilitate dialogue aimed at supporting broader solutions to world hunger.
“Raising awareness and teaching the value of food to our generations and generations coming is very important, and this will help us expand further and make our vision come true,” Noor Tozul Ahmad said. “We would love to connect to the government or something so we can talk about this on a bigger scale, so our dream and Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream can all become true.”
In addition to the Student Humanitarian Award , supervisors presented the adult Humanitarian of the Year Award to organizer, activist, and Pittsburg resident Willie Mims at Monday’s ceremony.
