Headshot Photo of Erin Schrode
2009 Award Recipient

ErinSchrode

Project Teens Turning Green / Teens for Safe Cosmetics

Location Ross, CA

Issue Area Advocacy/Activism | Climate Justice/Environment

Erin created Teens Turning Green to encourage teens to be more environmentally conscious as consumers and to advocate for behavioral and policy changes based on environmental awareness and concern.

Eco-consciousness forms the lens through which I view my entire life.

Erin Schrode

Where is 2009 Awardee Erin Schrode Now?

Erin Schrode 2009 Awardee

Erin Schrode was a recipient of the Diller Teen Tikkun Olam Award in 2009 for her leadership in Teens Turning Green (now called Turning Green), a student-led movement that empowers and mobilizes youth through education and advocacy around climate justice, environmental sustainability, and public health. Since receiving the award, Turning Green has expanded its programs to work with millions of elementary, middle, high school, college, and graduate students on campuses worldwide, including the annual 30-day Project Green Challenge and Conscious Kitchen to reimagine school food service. Some of Erin’s major milestones include:

  • To date: Turning Green has worked directly with over 1 million students on more than 19,916 campuses in 50 United States and 169 countries. Erin has contributed to ABC, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, Refinery29, and is frequently tapped for and featured in The New York Times, Vanity Fair, CNN, NBC, FOX, Seventeen, Forbes, and more.

  • 2020: Erin began driving Turning Green’s Conscious Kitchen program to transform school food supply chains, sourcing and serving over 20 million organic, nutritious meals to students and vulnerable populations near her home in the Bay Area, as well as rural Guatemala.

  • 2017: Erin led World Central Kitchen’s #ChefsForPuertoRico as COO to serve 3.7+ million meals after Hurricane Maria, for which founder Chef José Andrés was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, then investing in local, sustainable agriculture and food systems island-wide.

  • 2016: Erin ran an unprecedented political campaign in her home district in California, as the youngest candidate to ever run for U.S. Congress.

“It is never too late, too early, or too often TO GIVE BACK AND MAKE THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE”
Helen Diller