CHANGING HUNGER: Hillary Krisman, right, drops off a Change Hunger bucket to the Rev. Carol Lawson of First Christian Church during the summer of 2007. Her experiences working at Iron Gate and her CHANGEHUNGER initiative have impressed local church officials, and Krisman has been invited to be a guest speaker at the Eastern Oklahoma Presbytery conference in April.
Hillary Krisman, a sophomore at Union Intermediate High School, has been asked to speak at the Eastern Oklahoma Presbytery conference, which will host representatives from 72 congregations this April.
She was asked to speak after she impressed Rev. Steve Frazier and the congregation at John Knox Presbyterian Church on her experiences at Iron Gate, the impact of hunger in Tulsa and about her CHANGEHUNGER initiative.
Her father, Jeff Krisman, is helping her book other speaking engagements.
“She is very interested in the social sciences and plans to pursue a bachelor of arts in public administration with a non-profit management concentration as well as a minor in social work,” Jeff says. “Alleviating the impact of hunger and poverty is very important to her, and she feels that this is the most important work that she can do.”
Hillary currently works part-time at the Tulsa Community Foundation and is also a mentor at the Kumon Math and Reading Center in South Tulsa where she works with elementary students. In addition, she also volunteers at Iron Gate Soup Kitchen in Tulsa serving the hungry and works in the administrative offices managing the volunteer schedule and the donor databases, and assists with the planning of special events.
In June 2007, Hillary started a grassroots project to recruit volunteers and raise funds and awareness of the services of Iron Gate called CHANGEHUNGER. She recruits and works with local religious organizations to sell CHANGEHUNGER bracelets to raise awareness of the impact of hunger and to raise funds to help Iron Gate feed more hungry people in Tulsa.
The mission of CHANGEHUNGER is to provide teenagers in the Tulsa area with opportunities to learn more about the impact of hunger and to volunteer their time to help alleviate the problem of hunger through preparing and serving meals, fund raising, and educating others.
“By getting other teens involved, she is bringing together a different kind of youth group,” her father says. “Most school-based service groups have kids from the same school and most likely very similar socioeconomic backgrounds. Religious youth groups generally bring together kids of the same religion. CHANGEHUNGER is a group of teenagers of different ages, religions, schools, ethnicities, and socioeconomic backgrounds focused on the shared goal of alleviating the impact of hunger.”
Hillary strongly believes that it is important to bring kids together from different backgrounds because they can learn how to get along and work with each other, and most importantly, this work that they do together can break down the ethnic, racial and religious barriers between teens.
The teens involved with her youth group are interested in making the community better. Participating in CHANGEHUNGER provides them with the opportunity to network with other teens outside of their circle of friends and broaden their horizons by meeting teens that have had different life experiences, Jeff says. In addition, they have the chance to learn about other community projects that they may not have known about otherwise.
“So far 15 religious organizations have participated,” Jeff says, “and they have raised more than $2,000 as a result, which has provided more than two thousand full meals for the hungry at Iron Gate. Between recruiting volunteers and selling bracelets, she has increased the awareness of more than 500 people regarding the causes and impact of hunger.”
Hillary is involved in many volunteering activities. She is the co-president of the Union Public Schools Drug-Free Youth Program and works with teens from grades 6-8 to help them make positive life choices. She is a working group member of Oklahoma University at Tulsa-Youth Philanthropy Initiative. Her group is currently developing a comprehensive program that will be presented to area schools to combat date abuse.
Also, she is a social action chair and a member of the B’Nai Brith Youth Organization-BBYO Tulsa Chapter as well as a social action chair and a member of the Union High School Key Club and currently helps plan opportunities for both groups to learn more about the impact of hunger and to volunteer at the Iron Gate soup kitchen.
Although she is just a sophomore, Hillary has accumulated 450 hours of community service since the summer of 2007 and has already fulfilled the number of hours required in order to earn the Distinguished Service Graduate designation upon graduation from Union High School in spring 2010.
She was one of the five nationwide 2007 winners of the Sodexho Foundation STOP Hunger Award. As a national honoree she received a $3,000 scholarship award as well as a $3,000 grant made in her name to the hunger-related charity of her choice, Iron Gate Ministries in Tulsa.
