CINCINNATI – The Scripps Howard Foundation has honored three men for helping thousands of people in their community through meal delivery and education scholarships.
Jamal Giornazi, Samariddin Meliboev and Kai Suematsu
Jamal Giornazi, Samariddin Meliboev and Kai Suematsu received the annual S.J. Dilenschneider Community Award, which honors the late S.J. Dilenschneider, a longtime executive with Scripps-Howard newspapers. A panel of judges selected Giornazi, Meliboev and Suematsu from nominees recommended by Scripps local television stations across the country.
The award, including a $10,000 cash prize, is given to an individual or group of individuals in Scripps’ local markets who exemplify the spirit of The E.W. Scripps Company and reflect Dilenschneider’s unique ability to raise the bar for all around him.
In 2020, Giornazi, Meliboev and Suematsu – then students at the University of Colorado Boulder – recognized a need for food assistance in the Denver and Boulder communities during the pandemic, so they started the Kobu Foundation. In partnership with local food banks, the students met weekly with volunteers to pack boxes and disperse the meals to different neighborhoods. In the first month of the pandemic, the students delivered 100 meals to those in need, and have since delivered over 150,000 meals.
In addition to hunger relief assistance, the students set up the Kobu Foundation as a scholarship program. The three men – all scholarship recipients through the Denver Scholarship Foundation, sponsored by Scripps’ local station Denver7 – wanted to help students pursuing their own education and career goals. They established a $2,500 annual scholarship given to students who exemplify the values of community, compassion and leadership.
Giornazi, Meliboev and Suematsu began working together in high school. They founded the Denver Club of Humanities, a hunger relief organization that redirects food waste. High school students continue to run that organization today.
“The impact these men have had on the Colorado community goes beyond the meal deliveries,” said Liz Carter, president and CEO of the Scripps Howard Foundation. “They continue to inspire teens and young adults to use their passions to give back to their community – a legacy that S.J. Dilenschneider imbued with his life’s work.”
Meliboev and Suematsu have since graduated from CU Boulder. Gironazi will soon graduate with degrees in computer science and mathematics. The students have passed leadership of the food pantry to other students who they mentored and inspired.
Giornazi, Meliboev and Suematsu received the S.J. Dilenschneider Community Award during a luncheon on Tuesday, July 19, 2022 hosted by Denver7 and the Denver Scholarship Foundation.
Media contact: Molly Miossi, The E.W. Scripps Company, 513-977-371, [email protected]
About the Scripps Howard Foundation
The Scripps Howard Foundation supports philanthropic causes important to The E.W. Scripps Company (NASDAQ: SSP) and the communities it serves, with a special emphasis on journalism education, excellence in journalism and childhood literacy. At the crossroads of the classroom and the newsroom, the Foundation is a leader in supporting journalism through scholarships, internships, minority recruitment and development and First Amendment causes. The Scripps Howard Awards stand as one of the industry’s top honors for outstanding journalism, and the Foundation’s annual “If You Give a Child a Book …” childhood literacy campaign has distributed more than 500,000 new books to children in need across the nation since 2017. In support of its mission to create a better-informed world, the Foundation also partners with Scripps brands to create awareness of local issues and support impactful organizations to drive solutions that help build thriving communities.