Earlier this spring, Dominic Esposito ’18 was selected from hundreds of entrants as one of ten national honorees for the Make A Difference Day Award. At a ceremony held in Washington D.C. earlier this May, Esposito was honored for his service work through his non-profit organization, Scrap Hunger, Inc.

As part of the award, Newman’s Own provided a $10,000 grant to the charity of Esposito’s choosing. He selected the FoodBank of Monmouth and Ocean Counties as the grant recipient.

At age 14, Dominic Esposito saw a need in his community and found a creative way to help solve it. It was 2013, and Hurricane Sandy had recently devastated New Jersey – leaving many families in need of help and food pantries struggling to keep shelves stocked. When the entrepreneurial teen learned that valuable scrap metal was not being properly recycled in his community, he founded Scrap Hunger Inc. to collect and recycle unwanted scrap metal with proceeds benefitting area food banks.

On Make a Difference Day, the nonprofit hosted a walk-a-thon, leveraging social media, word-of-mouth, and door-to-door marketing to gain business and community support. The event raised nearly $2,500 for the Food Bank of Monmouth and Ocean Counties – enough to provide 7,300 meals for people in need. Dominic’s commitment to service echoes those of millions of volunteers who unite in service each year on the 4th Saturday in October for Make a Difference Day, an initiative of USA TODAY, backed by the Gannett Company and TEGNA Inc., in collaboration with Points of Light. This week in Washington, D.C., volunteers with Scrap Hunger and other community groups – selected from thousands of entrants – will be honored for their 2015 Make a Difference Day projects.