RE LOG Fall 2024

FALL 2024 Ransom Everglades LOG 7 RE’s 2024 Founders’ Award winner Joshua Williams ’18 sharpens approach to stamping out food insecurity By Sofia Andrade ’19 Joshua Williams ’18 is no stranger to hard work. The 2024 winner of the Ransom Everglades Founders’ Award for Distinguished Service to the Community was only four years old when, with the support of his family, he founded the Joshua’s Heart Foundation – a nonprofit fighting against global hunger and poverty, affectionately referred to by its members as JHF. It was 2004 and he was living in Miami Beach, spurred to action by the knowledge that people in his very neighborhood were going hungry. Looking back on it, Williams calls the foundation’s mission to put food in the hands of the hungry an “emotional” response to a boyhood streetside encounter with a man suffering from homelessness. But it’s a response that has nonetheless affected his life in almost unimaginable ways, catapulting him into a young career traveling the country to speak publicly about hunger, service and the power of young people to make positive, lasting change, while also bringing about a stunning cascade of awards and recognition. In 2012, Williams became the youngest recipient of the White House Champions of Change award, for his work addressing food insecurity in the U.S. In 2017, he was awarded the President’s Lifetime Achievement Award. In between, he was recognized with honors from CNN, Nickelodeon, The Grio, Youth Service America and others. When he received the RE Founders’ Award at commencement in May, he became the youngest recipient ever at age 23. The list goes on and on. Photos by Suzanne Kores and Jenny Abreu and provided by the Joshua’s Heart Foundation