This Boy Found a Way to Feed the Hungry With His Favorite Food

During National Volunteer Week, April 12 - 18, we celebrate the diversity of our nation’s volunteers, like today's Daily Point of Light Award winner, Miles Lin. Read his story and nominate someone you know as a Point of Light.

When Miles Lin was 3, all he could think about was fish – how much he enjoyed eating them and how he loved going fishing with his grandfather.

“He kind of has an encyclopedic brain when it comes to fish,” says Miles’ mom, Sophia Lin. “Other kids read novels and he reads things like the ‘Glossary of Fish in North America.’”

His parents taught him that when you discover your passion, you shouldn’t keep it to yourself; you should share it with the world. With help from his parents and grandfather, at 9 years old, Miles decided to use his passion for all things fish to help change the world.

It started with a dinner conversation one night when Miles’ mother told him not to throw away table scraps.

“I wanted to learn how to prevent that,” says Miles. “I saw on the Internet how we could help world hunger by using fish, and aquaponics came up.”

Aquaponic food production combines raising fish with growing plants in water. The fish and plants rely on each other to thrive – the fish waste fertilizes the plants, which in turn provide oxygen for the fish. Aquaponics systems take up little space but yield big results.

Soon after that discovery, the enthusiastic and entrepreneurial 10-year-old founded I Dream of Fish, a nonprofit that works to address the lack of sufficient, nutritious food among marginalized populations through aquaponics.

Read the rest of the story on the Points of Light blog.