How two Wisconsin students built a volunteer network to fight hunger

Noah Duckett and Wyatt Ehrhardt started their food drive in 2024, the same year they finished high school. Two years later, the initiative they began in a Wisconsin town has grown into a national network and earned one of the most prestigious youth honours in the world. Duckett and Ehrhardt, both now college sophomores, have received The Diana Award for co-founding Meals Matter, a student-led non-profit that fights food insecurity.Starting small in MiddletonThe high school students initially started the food drive on a much smaller scale.

The idea was simple: collect food from neighbours and get it to families who needed it. Their first drives filled bags and boxes, and the work continued long after the first month. They initially called it Middleton Meals Matter.At the time, they wanted to do something bigger than a school project but weren't sure what.

Clothing and food were both options. They chose food.