Courtesy of Donnovan Denham

Scott Credit Union provided junior Donnovan Denham’s organization St. Louis Food Rescue a donation of $1000. Denham receives food donations from the Parkway Food Pantry and Einstein Bagels to deliver to people in need. “The news attention brought more interest and more people want to help out. So we can get more food to more people in need and so we can expand our range to help out more people,” Denham said.

While most teens are hitting the couch, junior Donnovan Denham has been continuing his food rescue even during a hard time in the world. 

“Delivering food is much different during quarantine because we have to follow safety precautions of being socially distant and making sure we wash and sanitize our hands before giving out the food,” Denham said.

Denham continues to receive calls and emails for food deliveries. Despite the pandemic, his organization called St. Louis Food Rescue is still making deliveries to those in need.

“I never really thought about not delivering food. I was going to deliver food unless there was absolutely no way I could,” Denham said. “It is important that I continue to deliver food because some people are relying on us to give them the food that they need, so that they don’t starve.”

Denham has earned media recognition for his work.

“Getting recognition from the news helped give me a reminder that what I am doing is helping a lot of people, keeping them healthy in this hard time around the world,” Denham said.

Denham’s feature on the news gave people a little bit of a glance into what motivates him to help others.

“It was fun to talk about something that I am so passionate about and being on the news gave the organization the publicity it needed to grow,” Denham said. “I feel like this really helped put our organization out there more and it’ll help us get more supplies.”

Denham’s organization is a non-profit organization; his work is voluntary. 

“Some people ask me if I ever make money for doing this and I tell them no,” Denham said. “It’s not always about the money; it’s about making someone’s day and helping put a smile on their face and giving away something that you are fortunate enough to have.”

Denham has done nearly 40 deliveries during quarantine to different parts of the St. Louis area, including community centers, individual families and organizations.

“While the pandemic did bring attention to the organization, we have been consistent with drop offs over the past couple of years and we plan to stay consistent,” Denham said. “The food has a much greater impact [on families] due to shortages of food due to COVID-19.” 

Denham encourages others to go out of their way to help those in need.

“We can all help make a change in the world if we take the time to help those in need and not take for granted the privileges that we have in this world to eat, make money and get all the necessities that we need,” Denham said.