Our Programs
LOUKOUMI international good deed council
The Loukoumi Foundation hosts an International Good Deed Council of schools worldwide (see map at right). Monthly, across 13.5 hours of time zones, these students enthusiastically meet on Zoom to share their cultures and customs, the good deed projects they are working on in their communities and together they collaborate on global good deed projects. Schools are now traveling and visiting other schools in the Council and students are communicating through our international pen pal program. The Council is also planning the first annual Loukoumi Good Deed Council Summit in the Spring of 2025 in New York. If your school is interested in joining the council, please email us at info@loukoumifoundation.org
LOUKOUMI GOOD DEED OF THE MONTH ZOOM
Each month during the school year join the Loukoumi Foundation as we visit a different host school for our Loukoumi Good Deed of the Month Zoom program. Students watch live or watch a recording afterwards depending on their time zone and together students unite to participate in a good deed project each month. Past Zooms have been hosted in India, Tanzania, Italy, Gander Newfoundland Canada, Puerto Rico, New York and from NY Mets Spring Training (right). To participate email us at info@loukoumifoundation.org
LOUKOUMI GOOD DEED SCHOOL CURRICULUM
The Loukoumi Foundation collaborates with over 300 schools worldwide through our exclusive good deed curriculum. We design a program that fits each school’s needs and budget and can include the following components:
a dedicated Dream day program at your school
Good Deed Bus as class trips (bottom right students at Gander Elementary School)
A writing workshop for the next Inspiring Stories book
Monthly good deed school visits (in person or virtual), book readings, projects and signings
Loukoumi Feeds the Hungry program; cook for an area homeless shelter (top right)
Adopt a Nursing Home Program with the non-profit 3 Wishes For Ruby’s Residents
Loukoumi Good Deed Celebration Fair in your school
Loukoumi Make A Difference Awards program
A discussion with students about identifying a good deed project that they are passionate about
For additional information or to discuss a proposal for your school, email us at Loukoumifoundation@gmail.com.
loukoumi Good Deed Buses
Every year on National Make a Difference Day The Loukoumi Make a Difference Foundation organizes daylong community service tours in cities across the US and Canada during which children perform good deeds at several locations. Recent US tours in New York, Chicago, Washington DC, Los Angeles, Illinois, Boston and Gander, Newfoundland included park clean-up projects and visits to senior centers, hospitals, animal shelters, and the 9-11 Tribute Museum. Other Loukoumi Bus Tours have been held in Puerto Rico, Lake Como Italy, Athens Greece and soon in Derry, Northern Ireland and Sevilla Spain. To host a Loukoumi Good Deed Bus in your city email us at: info@loukoumifoundation.org
Learn more about our Good Deeds Bus Tours on National Make a Difference Day.
Watch our Loukoumi Good Deed Bus Trip in Gander, Newfoundland, Canada
Dream Day Program (Dream Career Guidance and Mentorship)
The Loukoumi Make a Difference Foundation makes kids’ career dreams come true. Based on our book, Growing Up With Loukoumi, our Dream Day Contest gives kids the opportunity to spend a day in their dream day careers with their heroes. Past contest winners have watched a spaceship land on Mars at NASA, danced with Misty Copeland at the American Ballet Theatre, played football with the NY Giants, cooked with celebrity Chef Maria Loi, trained with the coach and members of the US Men's Olympic Swim Team, spent the day with a renowned neurosurgeon at Columbia University Medical Center, and served meals to the hungry with Jon Bon Jovi, just to name a few.
Learn More about our Dream Day Program and see past winners.
Denise from PS 205 in the Bronx lived her Loukoumi Dream Day of being a neurologist with reknowned neurosurgeon Dr. Grace Mandigo at Coumbia University Medical Center.
TEACHING KITCHEN AT THE FLOATING HOSPITAL
The Chef Maria Loi / Loukoumi Make A Difference Foundation Teaching Kitchen For Families at the Floating Hospital in Long Island City hosts schools and families with hands-on education and tools for managing chronic illnesses, maintaining nutritious diets and developing social and practical life skills. The Loukoumi Foundation has pledged $50,000 to sponsor this initiative where children also come into the kitchen and cook food that is then brought to homeless shelters as part of the Loukoumi Feeds The Hungry Program.
LOUKOUMI adopt a nursing home program
The Loukoumi Foundation visits nursing homes worldwide with students who play board games, talk and become friends with the residents. Through our Making A Difference Through the Arts Program, students also engage in intergenerational painting classes and perform at local nursing homes for the residents. Our Adopt a nursing home program at the Fountains at RiverVue Nursing Home in Tuckahoe, NY is made possible with funds from the Statewide Community Regrants Program, a regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, and administered by ArtsWestchester.
LOUKOUMI PARTNERS WITH PITCH IN FOR BASEBALL & SOFTBALL
The Loukoumi Make A Difference Foundation and Pitch In For Baseball & Softball are joining forces to create a field of dreams for your community. The two non-profits accept grant applications from teams and communities in need of equipment and field renovations. Join project leader Constantine Katsoris as he discusses how you can get involved. To Get Involved
SENDING POSITIVE THOUGHTS INTO THE UNIVERSE WITH CLUB FOR THE FUTURE
The Loukoumi Make A Difference Foundation sends kindness into the universe with Blue Origin’s Club for the Future where you can send a postcard and positive thoughts into space. Write a kindness saying or positive thought on the postcard and then send it to someone to brighten their day. Club for the Future will launch it to space and back on a New Shepard rocket, and return it to you (or someone else) stamped "Flown to Space." Click on this inspiring video and listen to Beckett's story and how you can get involved. To get involved please visit
www.Loukoumifoundation.org/clubforthefuture
Loukoumi Foundation Treatment Room at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital (Literacy)
The Loukoumi Make a Difference Foundation has launched a treatment room and literacy program at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. In the Loukoumi Foundation room, patients, who often miss several months or even years of school, receive reading instruction while they receive their cancer treatments. This project is funded entirely by donations from kids in schools nationwide, who are making caring cards for patients and donating one dollar each as well as proceeds from the sales of four Loukoumi books. To date, the Loukoumi kids have raised over $110,000. To participate and support this program Click Here and PDF Outline
Loukoumi standing outside the Loukoumi Foundation Treatment Room at St. Jude.
LOUKOUMI KIDS CLUB
The Loukoumi Make a Difference Kids Club (LKC) is an program for young service leaders who share Loukoumi Foundation’s vision of a future in which all children have the opportunity to make a difference in their lives and the lives of others and support The Loukoumi Make a Difference Foundation’s mission to make a difference in the lives of others by paying forward their talents through projects and causes that mean something to them.
LOUKOUMI FEEDS THE HUNGRY (ANTI-HUNGER)
Loukoumi Feeds the Hungry teaches children and young adults the important role good nutrition plays in their physical and mental wellness as they prepare and serve warm meals to local persons in need. In preparing the meals, children learn about the health benefits of fresh, organic ingredients and how to combine them in nutritionally rich, balanced and sustainable meals. In serving the meals, children learn invaluable lessons about the fragility of our social fabric and how caring for those in need builds strong communities that value the dignity of every member. The Loukoumi Foundation also participates annually in the New York Mets Summer Food Drive benefiting The River Fund NY.
INSPIRING STORIES THAT MAKE A DIFFERENCE.
In October 2019, the Loukoumi Foundation released the book, Inspiring Stories That Make A Difference in partnership with the award winning musical Come From Away. Come From Away tells the story of how over 7,000 airline passengers were diverted on 9-11 to the small Canadian town of Gander, Newfoundland because the US airspace was closed. For almost a week, the residents of this small town embraced these stranded passengers showing them kindness by welcoming them into their homes, cooking for them and helping them survive this tragedy. Inspiring Stories builds on the message of kindness from the Loukoumi Foundation and Come From Away and features the essays of 75 children around the world, including 22 from Gander, who are paying it forward one good deed at a time and changing the world. In October 2019 The Loukoumi Foundation celebrated the launch of the book with a Loukoumi Good Deed Bus in Gander where children visited the same stops and did good deeds at the very places that their parents and grandparents did on 9-11. The nine stops included children visiting the Animal Shelter donating animal supplies, donating canned goods at The Salvation Army, hockey equipment at the hockey arena, and planting a tree in memory of those that lost their lives on 9-11 which was planted next to an original piece of steel from the North Tower of the World Trade Canter donated by the U.S. Government. The Loukoumi Foundation is planning to release a documentary on this very special day. Plans are also underway for the second edition of Inspiring Stories. To submit your essay email us at info@Loukoumifoundation.org
LOUKOUMI GOOD DEED CELEBRATION
Loukoumi Foundation Good Deeds Celebration is an event held in schools worldwide that brings together children, young adults, organizations and schools to showcase good deeds projects. The event provides support for good deeds projects, inspiration for new projects and opportunities to serve others that day through card and letter writing, purchasing gift items to support children’s charities and donating items for distribution to those in need.
LOUKOUMI Literacy and Community Service program sponsored by george’s angels
The Loukoumi Make a Difference Foundation created an eight-part, interactive literacy program based on the Loukoumi eight book series developing social and professional skills essential to the success of tomorrow’s service leaders. Each month, students read a Loukoumi book, discuss its lesson and perform good deeds inspired by the book’s message. Participating schools include the Catholic Schools in the NY Archdiocese, the Diocese of Brooklyn, The Diocese of Bridgeport CT, the Diocese of Birmingham AL, and Mobile AL and the Diocese of Trenton NJ. The Catholic School program is sponsored by the generosity of Eileen and Gary Franklin and the organization George’s Angels. For more on the organization George’s Angels and its mission of “Changing the world one kind act at a time,” please visit: https://www.georgesangels.org
For a copy of our curriculum email us at info@loukoumifoundation.org
As the 2019-20 School year commenced so did the Loukoumi Good Deed of the Month curriculum in over 300 Schools. Thank you to all the schools for making a difference with Loukoumi.
LOUKOUMI FOUNDATION EXHIBIT AT THE WESTCHESTER CHILDREN'S MUSEUM: STORY TIME PROGRAM AND GOOD DEED OF THE MONTH CLUB
The Loukoumi Make a Difference Foundation began a literacy and community service program at The Make A Difference With Loukoumi Exhibit at The Westchester Children's Museum featuring guest readers of the Loukoumi book series and other books aligned with Loukoumi Foundation’s mission. The Loukoumi Foundation has donated $20,000 to this initiative.
Loukoumi Saves a Park premiered at The Westchester Children's Museum in the Make A Difference With Loukoumi Exhibit Space during the Good Deed of the Month Program.
Literacy Program (Literacy)
The Loukoumi Make a Difference Foundation provides books for sale to schools and organizations across the country to raise money for a variety of literacy awareness projects and other supported charities. Proceeds raised are donated to more than a dozen charities and over 50,000 Loukoumi books have been donated by Author Nick Katsoris to programs worldwide.
BULLYING AWARENESS (ANTI-BULLYING)
The Loukoumi Make a Difference Foundation in collaboration with PACER’s National Bullying Prevention Center uses Loukoumi And The Schoolyard Bully in a Bullying Awareness program in schools across the country. Following readings of the book kids will be asked to take Pacer’s Kids Against Bullying Pledge.
