Track MLK Day of Service Activities and Hours for 26-27 National Community Service Awards

High school students across the United States: Help your school explore what trust looks like!

TrustYouth, an initiative of the Alliance for Youth Thriving, is inviting high school students nationwide to become student ambassadors and help their schools explore trust, student voice, and leadership.

Student ambassadors partner with a supportive adult at their school and invite at least five fellow students to complete a short, anonymous reflection. More participants are encouraged! Participating schools with sufficient responses can receive a personalized TrustYouth School Profile showing how students and adults experience trust, including where their perspectives align or differ. It's a starting point for conversation, not a grade or ranking.

The first 50 eligible student ambassadors who complete the required activities can receive a $50 Amazon gift card to recognize their efforts and encourage continued leadership, subject to eligibility and availability.



Students: Ready to lead? Sign up today! Educators and school staff: Encourage your students to get involved and offer to support them! Sign Up to Become a TrustYouth Ambassador!

For a limited time, Suzanne Collins, Lionsgate and World Food Program USA are teaming up to bring you experiences inspired by the book and film right inside the Zero Hunger Generation, its flagship movement for students and young professionals, including:

Take the Character Quiz: Find out which character from The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping you're most like — and which WFP program you'd champion.

Share a Message: Paint your poster by sending a message of encouragement to WFP humanitarians working on the front lines of crises around the world. 

Send Your Movie Reaction: After seeing the movie on November 20, share your reflections on creating a Zero Hunger future. 

Host a Book Club: Celebrate the book that started it all by hosting a book club to read and discuss Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping. 

Send a Meal: For fans ages 18+, donate to support WFP’s critical work and help deliver one million meals to families facing hunger. To kick off the campaign, Suzanne Collins and Charles Pryor will match donations made at wfpusa.org/ZHG dollar for dollar ─ doubling fan impact.



Earn exclusive, limited-edition badges, unlock special membership levels and see messages from the cast that will only be available during the campaign.

Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week is an annual program where people come together across the country to draw attention to the problems of hunger and homelessness. Participating groups spend the week holding a series of educational, service, fundraising, and advocacy events.

What’s the difference between hunger and food insecurity? Which programs are most effective at fighting hunger and poverty? And how can we use our voices to end hunger? The Congressional Hunger Center believes that learning about hunger is the first step to solving it. That’s why for Hunger & Homelessness Awareness Week this year, they’re raising awareness of hunger in the U.S. by inviting aspiring anti-hunger advocates to complete “The Basics About Hunger,” a free, three-course curriculum on Zero Hunger Academy.

America250 is donating $1 Million in 2026, and we need you! Log your volunteer hours by December 1 for a chance to give $4,000 to the causes that matter most to you. If you’ve volunteered with us at any point this year, your hours count. Logging them takes just a few minutes, and every entry helps make 2026 the largest Year of Service in American history. Volunteers nationwide have already logged more than 90 million hours. Go to the America Gives website. Below the hours counter, click "Add My Individual Hours."

The Eisenhower Foundation presents a contest for students looking to celebrate America's 250th birthday. Students in grades 6-12 interview someone whose life experiences differ from their own, create a 60-second video, write a short essay, and are eligible for prizes of $125 - $500.

The I3 Competition is an entrepreneurial and technology based competition that partners high school students with underserved businesses to develop their digital footprint (through apps, websites, social media campaigns) with mentorship of experts in the field. At the end of the 14-16 weeks, students will present the outcome of their work to a panel of judges for the chance to win up to $2,000. 

Safer streets start with youth voices. Through our Youth as Solutions® Transportation Focus Area, middle and high school students have the opportunity to identify transportation safety challenges in their communities and lead meaningful projects to address them.

Working alongside an adult mentor, youth teams will build leadership skills, engage community members, and turn their ideas into action. From identifying local safety concerns to developing creative solutions, teams will receive training, coaching, a youth leadership curriculum, and opportunities to connect with other changemakers across the country. Eligible teams may also qualify for project implementation funding.

Applications for the Transportation Focus Area are open until all spots are filled! Don't miss the opportunity to empower young people to make their communities safer, one project at a time.

In this engaging conversation, youth changemakers share the journeys behind their community impact projects, from the moment they recognized a need to the challenges they overcame and the lives they changed along the way. Explore how community service and youth-led action can open doors to careers in public service, nonprofit leadership, and civic life. Hear from youth changemakers and a public service leader about turning community involvement into a pathway for professional growth

Wednesday, November 18 | 1pm-4pm Eastern

Anyone who is interested in engaging young people ages 5-25 for MLK Day of Service (January 18, 2027) is invited to attend. Sessions include

• Introduction to MLK Day of Service and Overview of Planning Resources
• MLK Day of Service Project Planning 101
• Expert Coaching & Peer Learning Conversations.

See the full agenda here.

When you register, select "Not a Grantee" in the Grant Program dropdown question.

Thursday, November 19 at 6:30pm Eastern

Empower young leaders to build teams, dig into their local history, and design impactful exhibits that connect local stories of service to the broader national narrative. This Civic Learning Week, tell your community’s story of youth service. Join the National Youth Leadership Council (NYLC) and the National Museum and Center for Service (NMCFS) for a live information session to learn how students and young leaders can become "active community curators" for Civic Learning Week. In this session, we will walk through the entire journey of the Youth-Led Exhibits of Civic Action initiative—a national activation empowering young leaders to uncover local stories of service, bridge divides, and bring their community’s civic legacy to life through public exhibits.

This is a free project-based learning program that teaches 6th-12th grade students to understand and combat food insecurity in their community. The lessons and project work well in any class or club, homeschool or community youth group.