Emily Chan
Two young boys have been deemed heroes of their community after launching a school club aimed at providing food for the homeless in the downtown San Jose area.
16-year-old Ayaan Vaswani and 17-year-old Josh Isaac are students at an all-boys private school named Bellarmine College Preparatory, where the Lunch Bag Initiative began.
The Lunch Bag Initiative is a club where students gather together every Wednesday morning before school to make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to give to the homeless community.
They are able to prepare 100 meals per week that are delivered to multiple shelters, churches, and charities.
“Seeing the smiles on their faces when we handed out the sandwiches–something so little can make someone smile. It’s just really meaningful,” said Ayaan.
Ayaan and Josh have known each other since they were in preschool. They have always had a passion for helping the underprivileged and were inspired by childhood memories of their mothers’ kind acts of service to form the Lunch Bag Initiative.
When Ayaan and Josh were growing up, their mothers would often visit each other’s houses to make sandwiches together for those experiencing homelessness in the surrounding San Jose area.
Now, as high schoolers, they have been motivated to follow in their mothers’ footsteps and give back to their community as well.
To help keep the club on its feet, Ayaan and Josh have started a fundraiser for sandwich supplies. The donated money will be used to purchase bread, peanut butter, jelly, granola bars, fruits, bags, and sanitary items.
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