Children Spotlight of the Month: Te’Lario Watkins

According to Feeding America, one out of every seven children in Ohio faces hunger each day. With ongoing cuts to SNAP benefits, food insecurity across the state continues to rise. While many adults struggle to find solutions to this growing crisis, one young person from Columbus, Ohio, has chosen to take action.

Te’Lario Watkins is a student, farmer, entrepreneur, and nonprofit founder who has dedicated his childhood to fighting hunger and food waste. Still a teenager, Te’Lario is already redefining what youth leadership looks like through agriculture, community service, and education.

Te’Lario’s passion for growing food began early. At just seven years old, he founded Tiger Mushroom Farms, a small business that started as a curiosity project and quickly grew into a thriving operation. His work gained national attention and even landed him on television at a very young age. Today, Tiger Mushroom Farms is still operating, supplying shiitake and oyster mushrooms to customers and farmers markets across Ohio.

What began as business soon evolved into purpose. While selling produce at farmers markets, Te’Lario noticed some customers using alternative forms of payment. When he learned that these were assistance programs for families who could not afford food, the reality of hunger became personal. That moment sparked a shift from selling food to sharing it.

Determined to help families access fresh, healthy produce, Te’Lario began donating what he grew to food banks. So far, he has donated hundreds of pounds of fresh produce, ensuring that families who might otherwise rely on fast food can enjoy nutritious meals. This work expanded into what is now known as the Garden Club Project, a nonprofit organization Te’Lario founded in March 2020 to empower children and communities to grow their own food.

Through the Garden Club Project, Te’Lario has helped establish community and school gardens, distributed more than 2,000 pounds of fresh produce, provided hundreds of seed kits to children, and shared mushroom-growing kits with elementary school students. He works closely with local and urban farmers to share resources, reduce costs, and increase efficiency, all while keeping food production rooted in the community.

Te’Lario believes gardening does more than feed people. He sees it as a way to strengthen relationships, improve public health, and build sustainable local economies. Teaching children about agriculture, he says, brings new life to the food system while helping young people understand their connection to the environment and their responsibility to care for it.

His impact has earned widespread recognition. In 2023, Te’Lario was named a recipient of the Gloria Barron Prize for Young Heroes, one of the nation’s most respected honors for young people making a difference. He has also received the Hormel Food Hero Award, the Points of Light Award, the Generation Green Award, and an honorable mention from the International Young Eco-Hero Awards.

Beyond gardening, Te’Lario is a strong advocate for reducing food waste. He has partnered with national organizations such as No Kid Hungry and Food Rescue U.S., helping redirect surplus food from restaurants to families in need. As a Hunger Hero, he also hosts annual fundraising and awareness events to keep food insecurity in public focus.

Throughout his journey, Te’Lario has been supported by his family, who work alongside him in both his business and nonprofit efforts. His parents have encouraged his vision, while his sister collaborates with him in growing and selling mushrooms. For Te’Lario, working with family and community is not just support, it is central to his mission.

Despite balancing school, business, and activism, Te’Lario remains focused on the future. He plans to study agricultural engineering at Ohio State University and hopes to expand the Garden Club Project to reach more communities while building a sustainable model that allows youth-led food initiatives to thrive long term.

Te’Lario Watkins’ story is a powerful reminder that children are not passive witnesses to the challenges around them. They can be innovators, leaders, and solution-builders. By turning soil into sustenance and curiosity into commitment, Te’Lario is growing more than food. He is growing hope, equity, and a new generation of changemakers.

For this month’s Children Spotlight, we honor Te’Lario Watkins for showing what is possible when a child chooses to see a problem and commits to fixing it.