ABOUT LAUREN

A New Hampshire native, middle-school teacher Lauren Gogolen presides over her bright classroom with energy and optimism. As any good teacher, she gives her students knowledge and skills, but she goes a step further. She shares with them a profound lesson about social responsibility. “I teach my students that by giving just a little of their time they can help others.” To that end, Lauren has, for each of the past five years, mobilized over a hundred students in the school’s Helping Hands community service organization to participate in The Walk for Hunger. Together they have raised $5,000 a year for Project Bread.

And Lauren’s work doesn’t stop there. At Thanksgiving and Christmas time, she can be found, long after the school day at Revere’s Rumney Marsh Academy is over, packing boxes and food baskets. Lauren has enjoyed helping others this way as long as she can remember. She did volunteer work at her mother’s side and then in her Girl Scout troop where she says she had a revelation when she discovered that one of her closest friends was actually on the receiving end of a food basket. “It dawned on me that day that we don’t always know who needs help. Hunger is often hidden.”