Hormel Foods Corp. has announced its fourth cohort of 10 Under 20 Food Heroes, recognizing the efforts of young people across the U.S. who are working to create a more transparent, secure and sustainable food system.
The Austin, Minnesota-based company will host the group at its global headquarters where honorees will connect with Hormel Foods leaders and discuss scaling their projects. The program fosters a nationwide network of young changemakers united by a shared passion for improving their communities.
“We are incredibly proud to welcome these young leaders to Hormel Foods and provide them with the resources and support they need to amplify their impact,” said Katie Clark, SVP and chief communications officer for Hormel Foods.
“From passing state legislation to developing sustainable farming solutions, each of the 10 Under 20 Food Heroes has demonstrated an exceptional commitment to building a more sustainable food system, and we are excited to see how they will continue to shape the future of food.”
This year’s 10 Under 20 program includes mental health and resilience training for the cohort and their families through Be Strong, an organization aimed at strengthening mental, emotional and relational health. The support ensures the well-being of these young leaders as they tackle challenges in the food system.
2025 10 Under 20 Food Heroes
- Adam Belouad, 19 – Belouad serves as the executive director of Hand to Hunger, a nonprofit that works to combat food insecurity by bringing students and corporations together to provide meals for those in need. Together with friends, he started a weekly tradition of cooking warm meals for a local homeless shelter. The weekly tradition grew from 30 bagged lunches to 4,000 meals by the third month and has expanded into a global community of tens of thousands of volunteers. Hand to Hunger has served more than 220,000 meals and mobilized 62,500 student volunteers.
- Ali Muzik, 17 – Muzik focuses her work on enhancing the Packer Pantry and Clothing Closet, a student-led group that brings together several programs providing food, clothing and personal items for students and families in need. She helps organize volunteers and shares the pantry’s story with the community. She implemented an online ordering form to optimize pantry usage, which inventories items and provides ease of product pick up for students.
- Angelina Xu & Advika Agarwal, both 19 – The duo co-founded Compostology, a nonprofit dedicated to bringing food waste composting, recovery and prevention programs to every school in Montgomery County, Maryland. The organization seeks to tackle food waste, hunger and an inequitable K-12 educational opportunity. The pair have led postcard campaigns at more than 20 schools and lobbied at the Maryland General Assembly. Their efforts helped pass SB 124, a state bill that allocated $1.25 million in grant funding for K-12 schools to start their own composting and food recovery programs.
- Atreya Manaswi, 19 – Manaswi works with the USDA and University of Florida on honeybee conservation through his organization, Save Our Bees. His research targets the small hive beetle, one of the most destructive pests threatening pollinators. He developed an eco-friendly beer-based pesticide blend that is 4,754 times cheaper than the leading pesticide. His innovation has the potential to save the beekeeping industry more than $1 billion annually and eradicated infestations in field trials without harming pollinators.
- Bella Brown, 18 – Brown is the co-founder of Living Outside, a nonprofit that creates care packages with essential food and clothing items to hand out to those in need. Today, Bella has grown the organization into 20 youth-led chapters worldwide, including in Nigeria, Benin, Haiti and Peru. She provides seed funding and mentorship and has distributed more than 6,000 care bags. She has also raised more than $8,000 in monetary donations and hosted more than 30 events.
- Bruce Matos, 17 – Matos is the co-founder of the Joshua’s Heart Foundation Connecticut Junior Advisory Board, a youth-led group of middle and high school students. They organize and run their own projects to combat hunger and poverty through food drives, school supply collections and book donations to local schools. Inspired by JHS’s grocery distribution model, he expanded the organization’s mission into his home state. As a founding member, Bruce has helped distribute more than 7 million pounds of food, serving more than 6 million meals. As head of the partners and sponsors team, he engaged corporate donors and helped raise more than $43,000, impacting more than 1,500 families.
- Chris “CJ” Matthews, 18 – Matthews started Blankies 4 My Buddies, a nonprofit that delivers blankets to those dealing with difficult situations like illness, loss, grief, food insecurity and homelessness. Matthews hosts events that seek to show love through meals, blankets and other means of support. To date, he has helped more than 5,000 families through his annual The Giving Bowl event, a youth football tournament that promotes giving by inviting attending families to pick up essential items like food, cold-weather gear and toys.
- Hunter Guthrie, 17 – Guthrie founded A Taste of Home Inc., a nonprofit that solves the dual problem of reducing food waste and food insecurity in Northern Virginia by retrieving unsold food and delivering it to shelters. He contacts companies for food donations, which he picks up and brings to the shelter. He has also raised more than $60,000 in donations to purchase the most requested items the shelter rarely receives.
- Laura Kopec, 20 – Kopec started Feeding the Fosters which provides meals and unique dining experiences such as trips to hibachi restaurants for foster children in the Tampa area. The nonprofit has prepared nearly 40,000 meals with the help of more than 2,500 volunteers and raised more than $300,000 through grants, donations and fundraisers, allowing the group to use a commercial kitchen.
- Ryan Gustis, 19 – Gustis founded The Backpack Project, a nonprofit that hand-delivers backpacks full of necessities to those who are homeless. Within each backpack, he provides essentials like food, socks, outerwear, toiletries and a handmade card for positivity. To date, more than 3,000 backpacks have been delivered throughout Chicago, the suburbs and other surrounding states where family and friends have traveled.
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