How many children haven’t been sternly ordered to finish all their dinner because “there are starving children in Africa?” While the existence of starving children in Africa is true, most children have trouble balancing this bit of trivia with a spear of broccoli! Nevertheless, the Smith family has been touched firsthand with the plight of hungry children in Africa and all over the world…what they have done is far greater than just cleaning their plate; they have started a website that enables people to share a meal with a hungry child simply by going shopping!
The Smiths have always had a passion for missions work, feeding the hungry and raising awareness to children in need around the globe. In fact, the family’s hearts have been touched so deeply that they took their awareness and turned it into action by creating Save1.com: a website offering coupons for major retailers and donating a meal through one of four feeding programs for every coupon used. The program been able to offer 81,000 meals to hungry children within their first month of operations and have amassed a Facebook fan base of almost 40,000 people!
The Smith Family
The story of Save1 begins in the mailroom of Compassion International. This is where Todd Smith first learned of the harsh realities of hunger around the world. He is married to his high school sweetheart Joy who has travelled to remote villages across the ocean to help women, orphans and needy children. “Helping children in need is a passion of my life,” says Save1 co-founder Todd Smith. Todd and Joy have four children who share their passion to help those less fortunate than themselves. In fact Save1 is also run by his son, Gerrid Smith and his son-in-law, Josh Cearbaugh.
Save 1
Gerrid and his wife Jessica are so committed to children of third world countries, that their own home has become a haven for a child in need. “When my wife and I saw the orphans on our mission trips to third world countries, I knew then that I had to make a permanent difference in at least one child’s life.” Smith adopted his first child, Elijah, from Ethiopia. Before co-founding Save1, Gerrid and Jessica also founded the Moju Project, an online merchandise business designed to help wipe out social injustices like hunger, malnutrition and human trafficking.
Jessica Smith
Todd Smith’s daughter Danielle met her husband Josh Cearbaugh while doing mission work to the poorest of the poor in Mozambique. Josh, now one of the co-founders of Save1, continues to save lives on a daily basis. “Save1 is what brings value to my life,” says Josh. “I wake up every day with purpose, knowing that many children will not go to bed hungry because of the work I do!”
Credit: Reuters/Jayanta Dey
So back to clean plates….ever wonder how cleaning your plate could help a child in Africa anyway? It was really just a trick to make you eat your green beans! Save1 provides a sure fire way to send those plates of food to hungry children in Africa and all around the world. Too bad Save 1 wasn’t around to save some of us from the green bean scam when we were kids!
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