Take action against hunger and food waste for the opportunity to win a trip to San Diego Comic-Con® 2027, a $750 college scholarship, $3,000 for your school, and $1,000 for a hunger relief and food rescue charity of your choice.
One winner x 2 divisions can win...
San Diego
Comic-Con®
2027
College
Scholarship
hunger relief
or food rescue charity of your choice
for your school
champion title
the Heroes in
Action
playbook
A comic book.
A curriculum.
A call to action.
Hunger Action Heroes Unite! turns kids into real-world heroes who fight hunger and food waste with empathy, knowledge, and the power to act. The National Challenge invites students everywhere to take that action in their own community, document the impact, and tell their story.
You do not need the comic or the curriculum to enter. If a student is taking action against hunger and food waste, they are eligible to enter for the opportunity to win.
Two divisions. Grades 4–9.
Open to any student in grades 4 through 9 across all 50 states and D.C. Public school, private school, homeschool, after-school program, or solo. One submission per student.
Comic-Con® 2027
Six days, five nights (July 21 to 26, 2027). Travel, hotel, meals, and badges for the winner plus a guardian (ARV $6,500).
Four steps to hero status.
Pick a way to fight hunger or food waste in your community. Big or small, it all counts.
Snap up to 5 photos of your hero work in action, then record your story on video, up to 3 minutes. Judges hear you tell what you did, why, and the impact you made. You can be on camera or narrating over your footage, face optional.
Answer three short questions: what you did, why you did it, and what happened.
A parent or guardian enters your story at challenge.hungeractionheroes.org by March 12, 2027.
Official Rules & Regulations.
NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN. A PURCHASE WILL NOT IMPROVE YOUR CHANCES OF WINNING. Contest begins on September 1, 2026 at 12:01 a.m. PT and ends on March 12, 2027 at 11:59 p.m. PT. Open only to legal adult U.S. residents of the fifty (50) United States and D.C. whose child is enrolled in grades 4 through 9 at the time of entry. Entries must be submitted by a parent or legal guardian on behalf of child. One prize per contest division: grades 4-6 and grades 7-9. Prize travel must be completed between July 21 and July 26, 2027. Many will enter, only two (2) will win. Limit one (1) entry per child. Void where prohibited. Sponsor: Feeding San Diego, 9477 Waples St., Ste 100, San Diego, CA, 92121.
For entry requirements and restrictions, full prize details, approximate retail values, and eligibility requirements, see Official Rules.
Stoke Tracks ski pole baskets turn every run into a wild animal trail. Fully biodegradable, so you leave tracks, not microplastics. No trace. All stoke.
Kids aren't just along for the ride. They're the ones blazing the trail. That's the whole point of the National Challenge. Show up, leave your mark, move the world.
Ways to take action.
Pick one or stack several. Document the impact, submit the story, and it all counts toward the Challenge.
Sort, pack and distribute food at your local food bank. Find your closest Feeding America food bank here.
Rally your class, school or block to collect what's needed most by your local hunger relief organization. Find your closest Feeding America food bank here.
Bake sales, read-a-thons, talent shows: turn creativity into relief for your local food rescue organization or ReFED.
Grow fresh produce at school or at home.
Build a hunger-relief or food-rescue club and recruit your crew.
Conduct a food waste audit in your school cafeteria with World Wildlife Fund's Food Waste Warriors program.
Bring composting into your classroom or home and turn food waste into nutrient-rich soil with Let's Go Compost.
Take the pledge to reduce food waste at school with Lunch Out Of Landfills. They will help you organize a share table, source a share refrigerator to chill the perishables, and/or identify a food recovery system for your cafeteria.
Write letters, make posters, or talk to elected leaders about hunger and food waste.
Launch to legacy.
Kick-off to Hunger Action Month (September).
All entries in by 11:59 PM PT.
Submissions received will be evaluated by a panel of judges with relevant expertise in social impact, education, hunger relief, and/or food sustainability.
Announced on National Superhero Day.
Winner plus guardian from each division come to Comic-Con® in San Diego, CA. Their experience is captured on video and shared publicly after the event.
Every division winner earns their school a $3,000 grant.
Schools of the winning students receive a School Impact Grant and official recognition as a 2027 National Challenge winner.
United against hunger & food waste.
The National Challenge is backed by a coalition of leading hunger relief and food rescue organizations. These partners lend their expertise as judges, helping select the student heroes who best demonstrate real impact in their communities.
Coalition partners also help spread the word to schools, families, and communities nationwide, making sure every student who wants to be a hero gets the chance to compete.
It's Bananas!
People face hunger in the U.S., Including 14 million children (1 in 5 kids)
*Feeding America
Of all food produced went unsold or uneaten in 2024, and 25% of all food in the U.S. (60 million tons) went to waste
*ReFED
Meals' worth of food is being let go unsold or uneaten each year, roughly 1.3% of U.S. GDP
*ReFED
Worth of food is wasted at schools across the U.S. each year
*World Wildlife Fund
Stigma prevents many people from accessing the help they need (yet even superheroes need help sometimes!)
What you'll need.
The challenge is open! Entries are submitted on our secure entry platform. Ready to go? Hit Enter Now. Otherwise, round up the items below and a parent or guardian can knock the whole thing out in one sitting.
Feeding San Diego
Feeding San Diego is a partner food bank of Feeding America. Its mission is to connect every person facing hunger with nutritious meals by maximizing food rescue. Hunger Action Heroes Unite! is a social enterprise of Feeding San Diego. It exists to equip the next generation with the understanding, empathy, and confidence to care
for people and the planet, empowering young people to lead meaningful action. Proceeds from the sale of curriculum and support for the National Challenge support Feeding San Diego's critical hunger relief and food rescue programs. Feeding San Diego is the proud sponsor of the Hunger Action Heroes Unite! National Challenge.
Promotional toolkit
Help spread the word about the Hunger Action Heroes Unite! National Challenge. Print the poster for your classroom or hallway, share the announcement video, and post the graphics below to social channels.
Please tag @hungeractionheroes when you share.
How To Use This Toolkit:
- Download any graphic and post as-is, no editing needed.
- Use the caption provided with each slide, and tag @hungeractionheroes.
- Include #HAHUChallenge and #hungeractionheroes on every post.
- Link to hungeractionheroes.org/challenge wherever your platform allows.
Hunger Action Heroes Unite! is a social enterprise of Feeding San Diego
Questions & answers.
Any student in grades 4 through 9 across all 50 states and D.C. A parent or legal guardian, who must be a US resident, submits on behalf of any student under 18.
No. The Hunger Action Heroes Unite! comic and curriculum are featured resources, not a requirement. If a student in grades 4 through 9 is taking action against hunger and food waste, they are eligible.
Nothing. The Challenge is free to enter. No purchase necessary.
This is a skill-based contest: winners are determined by judged merit, not chance. An independent panel, including members from our Coalition partners, scores every entry against a published rubric: real-world impact (40%), student effort and initiative (30%), reflection (20%), and documentation (10%). Production value and whether the class used the Hunger Action Heroes Unite! curriculum are not scored.
Guardians of our first-pick potential winner in each division are contacted on or around April 8, 2027 and must sign and return a Declaration of Eligibility within 7 days to confirm the prize. If that potential winner can't be reached, misses that window, or can't confirm travel to San Diego, the runner-up for that division is contacted instead. Only winners with a signed Declaration are announced, publicly, on or around April 28, 2027 (National Superhero Day) at hungeractionheroes.org/challenge.
Yes, for this year's Challenge all submissions must be in English so every entry gets a fair, consistent read from our judges.
No hero left behind. If your student is unable to provide a video due to a disability or other accessibility barrier, check the accessibility box on the entry form and submit written answers instead. Written entries are judged on an equal basis with video entries.
No. Each student submits their own entry, on their own guardian's behalf. A parent or guardian with more than one eligible student may submit on behalf of each of their children, as a separate entry.
