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NJ MyImpact Challenge Students Use Food Waste to Protect Environment

by Bill of Rights Institute on

Hackensack, New Jersey students Leo Toake, Muhammad El-Sherbiny, Elle Kim, and Justin Ahn wanted to give back to their community by restoring parks, forests, and green spaces in a way that is practical and ecologically sound. 

Now, they have been awarded the $2,500 third prize in the Bill of Rights Institute’s MyImpact Challenge for founding Re:Imagine Inc., an environmental restoration organization that transforms local food waste into a natural herbicide that suppresses invasive species without harming soil or water health.  

The Bill of Rights Institute is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that teaches civics and history through market-leading curricula and educational programs for teachers and students. 

Through its MyImpact Challenge civic engagement contest, the Bill of Rights Institute encourages students to develop community service projects that advance constitutional principles like liberty, equality, and justice. This year, more than 400 students across America participated in the contest.  

Toake, El-Sherbiny, Kim, and Ahn, students at Bergen County Academies in Hackensack, NJ, created Re:Imagine Inc. to address dual problems — invasive plants harming their region’s biodiversity and compostable food waste discarded into landfills. 

They worked with volunteers, nature centers, and local businesses to create a low-cost, community-led approach that could restore damaged ecosystems and reduce unnecessary waste.  

Through Re:Imagine Inc, they created a sustainable, natural herbicide using food waste, restored natural biodiversity through keystone plantings, and organized community trail cleanups to reduce litter and erosion, keeping local nature spaces healthy and accessible.  

Re:Imagine Inc. has processed over 500 pounds of food waste, planted over 100 keystone native species, and organized 12 cleanup events.  

“By empowering volunteers, students, and local leaders to participate in this process, we’re building a culture where environmental health is seen as a shared right and duty,” Toake, El-Sherbiny, Kim, and Ahn said in their MyImpact Challenge essay. “At its heart, Re:Imagine Inc. believes ecological stewardship is a civic and moral obligation.” 

David Bobb, President and CEO of the Bill of Rights Institute, said the MyImpact Challenge helps students nationwide apply civic knowledge and citizenship skills in their everyday lives.  

“Civic education is about teaching young people to put principles into practice,” Bobb said. “MyImpact Challenge gives students a chance to work within their communities to solve real problems and create opportunities for their fellow citizens.”