Dylan Friedman Almond first got the idea for “Dylan’s Trail Mix Project” to help feed the homeless when she was only in first grade, and has now been doing it every year for six years. This year, she is being recognized for her hard work with a Dolphin Award, becoming the youngest-ever Dolphin honoree.
It all started when she and her mother were volunteering at the Methodist Church Thanksgiving dinner, and she observed the homeless and day laborers eating, and asked, “What will they have to eat after they leave?”
“She wanted to make them some food they could take with them—something nutritious that would last and be carried easily,” her mother Dana Friedman explained. “That’s when her idea for Dylan’s Trail Mix Project was born.”
In second grade, Dylan convinced her teachers and fellow students at Juan Cabrillo Elementary School to participate in the project by putting together hundreds of bags of trail mix with individual notes attached, which were delivered to the Methodist Church in time to hand out to the homeless and less fortunate on Thanksgiving. Juan Cabrillo families donated the ingredients, brought them to the school, and students made up the bags.
When Dylan changed to a new school, Westland, she launched The Trail Mix Project there, with the bags being donated to LA-based homeless charity Hope Gardens. The school has now been doing the project for several years.
She continues to get her friends involved every year in assembling bags of trail mix for the Methodist Church Thanksgiving dinner, and made 300 bags last Thanksgiving. She even started canvassing local grocery stores to donate ingredients.“I think all the people were really grateful that they got the trail mix,” Dylan said. “We write little notes on each bag that are all different, like ‘Happy Thanksgiving—you rock!’ or, ‘You’re fantastic!’ I wanted to make people feel that they’re loved, because they don’t have a family.”
Dylan hopes to continue expanding the Trail Mix Project, and has now put up a website to “teach other kids [in other communities] how to make the trail mix.” It includes a how-to video at dylanstrailmix.com.