Stella Hong
2026 Eco-Hero
HONORABLE MENTION
Stella Hong
Age 16
Vienna, Virginia, USA
HydroHarvest: Growing Sustainable Food Solutions for Urban Communities
At 16 years old, environmentalist, researcher, and community organizer Stella Hong is bridging the gap between technical agricultural science and urban food security in the Greater Washington, D.C. area. Stella’s trajectory shifted profoundly during the COVID-19 pandemic when she witnessed extensive lines of local families stretching around food banks, exposing deep systemic vulnerabilities in local food access. Recognizing that commercial agriculture faces declining crop yields due to a changing climate, Stella realized that addressing long-term food security required an innovative, sustainable approach. After discovering hydroponic cultivation during a greenhouse research internship, she realized that plants grown entirely in water without soil could provide an accessible, climate-resilient food source for urban spaces. Driven by a commitment to environmental stewardship, Stella founded "HydroHarvest" in late 2024 to empower food-insecure households to grow their own fresh produce independently.
What began as an engineered prototype has rapidly expanded under Stella's leadership into a comprehensive public health and environmental education campaign. Utilizing upcycled two-gallon plastic buckets gathered from local restaurants, Stella designed a compact, low-maintenance hydroponic grow kit that functions completely without electricity, eliminates pesticides, and reduces water consumption by 90% compared to traditional farming. To scale her impact, she developed an integrated community network, partnering with regional organizations like the Food for Others food bank to distribute the kits to underserved households. Stella also looks directly toward civic application by hosting hands-on seed planting workshops at schools and after-school clubs, specifically engaging special needs youth, low-income youth, and students of color. Through these interactive workshops, young volunteers grow the initial seedlings for the toolkits while learning vital concepts in botany, nutrition, and environmental sustainability.
Managing a multi-tiered volunteer operation required Stella to design approachable frameworks to overcome steep educational and cultural barriers. When early distributions revealed that families felt intimidated by the technical nature of hydroponics, Stella systematically reengineered her outreach materials, authoring visual, step-by-step instruction manuals and translating them into multiple languages to maximize accessibility. To further incentivize healthy eating habits, she initiated a produce gleaning network, gathering surplus leafy greens from university greenhouses and community gardens to distribute directly alongside the kits. To date, Stella has mobilized over 450 youth, distributed more than 170 pounds of fresh food, and manufactured 130 hydroponic toolkits.
Stella’s scientific acumen matches her extraordinary civic leadership. An avid researcher, she previously engineered a sustainable, nanoparticle-based fungicide that secured first place at the Virginia State Science Fair. On campus, Stella channels her passion into institutional change, serving as a youth representative on her town’s conservation council, implementing school-wide gardening programs, and advancing global ocean conservation campaigns as a member of the 2025 international Future Blue Youth Council. Currently, she is mentoring younger peers to inherit leadership roles within HydroHarvest to ensure the project remains sustainable as she prepares for a future career centered on sustainable agriculture.
"Food is a powerful sign of love and community. True environmental justice means dismantling barriers to healthy nutrition by equipping every family, regardless of income or geography, with the sustainable tools to grow their own future."
