A 17-year-old built 200 chapters so families can ask anonymously

Vivian Ho was 17 when she built a national supply network around a simple observation: asking for help usually means announcing that you need it. Her nonprofit, All The Same Organization, delivers food, hygiene products and school supplies to families through Title I schools, and families request what they need through an anonymous sign-up. No one has to put their name to the ask. Based in Cedar Park, Texas, the organization has grown to more than 200 chapters with roughly 8,000 volunteers, and has distributed over 150,000 supplies. One program asks volunteers to research a recipient family's culture, then make handmade crafts to send alongside the boxes. More than 500 crafts have gone out to over 60 families. Co-founder Anika Luangaphay traces it to Ho's own history growing up as a Vietnamese immigrant. "Just because resources exist does not mean that it's accessible," Luangaphay wrote. When one of Ho's projects, a medical classroom, was shut down, she started again at other schools. She was a teenager running the whole thing.