A 12-year old from Bear was the First Lady’s guest at last week's State of the Union address.
Braeden Mannering first met Michelle Obama at the White House in 2013 after winning the First State entry in the national Healthy Lunchtime Challenge. His “Tortilla Bowl Deluxe” allowed him to become the winner for Delaware.
“I was at the same table as her when we were eating and she asked everybody how we could pay the experience forward,” says Mannering. “And there are a lot of homeless people in Washington DC. and in Delaware and I thought it was a social injustice that they couldn't eat healthy food and have clean water.”
Braeden took the challenge further to heart after seeing an elderly homeless man walking in the rain near his home.
The 2015 Delaware Winner of the Jefferson Awards LEAD360 program then packed a brown bag with food for the man.
“When I got home I couldn’t stop thinking about the man so I packed a bag with whatever food I could find," he says. "And I asked for my mom’s umbrella because it was raining and I put the umbrella and the bread and things in the bag for the man and I asked my mom to drive me back and then I got out of the car and gave him the bag and he said thank-you son.”
Since July 2013, Mannering’s B3 charity foundation has doled out 4,600 brown bags containing healthy snacks and a bottle of water to homeless and low-income individuals. Additionally, the bags contain a letter from Braeden and contact information for additional services that can provide the recipient with further assistance.
Mannering recently launched 3B Ripples, a national school program aimed at encouraging his peers to get involved in the fight against hunger.
