Meet Orion Jean: 15-year-old Texas boy and TIME’s 2021 Kid of the Year who donated 100,000 meals and 500,000 books at age 9

Kindness is a choice. Orion Jean, a 15-year-old boy from Texas, has proved it. He was named the 2021 ‘TIME Magazine Kid of the Year’ for his acts of kindness, donating meals and providing books to millions of children. What makes it even more special and surprising is that he began all of this when he was just 9.

He also published a book in 2024 titled ‘Race to Kindness.’ The book talks about Orion's accomplishments of donating over a half million books to children and collecting over 100,000 meals for his community and across the country, according to Cision PR Newswire.

How did Orion Jean’s journey begin?

The journey towards kindness and public service began for Orion after he received an email from his fourth-grade teacher in 2020 during the COVID pandemic. It was a time when the entire world came to a standstill.

In a 2022 interview with actress and humanitarian Angelina Jolie, he recalled that time and said the idea to take initiative and extend help came about when he saw a lot of things happening and people losing their jobs and access to basic amenities.



“I’ve always been able to, when I get home school, just watch the news with my parents and find out what’s going on in the world. And when the pandemic began, I saw a lot of things were happening, people were losing their jobs and losing access to food and homes and all of these essential things,” Orion said, as quoted by ‘TIME”.

“And I knew right then that I wanted to do something to help, but the opportunity actually came around when my teacher suggested that I enter into a speech contest. And if I won the prize money that came with the contest, that means I could start a kindness initiative to help these people,” he further explained.

It was at that moment when Oripn’s ‘Race to Kindness' began, as it earned him the fame as ‘TIME 2021 Kid of the Year.’

From a $500 winning prize to half a million books

A journey that started with a $500 speech contest prize money and community support went many miles with him providing toys to several children and 100,000 meals to families starving for food

He set out to help children and families around Fort Worth, his hometown in Texas. With 500 toys in mind initially, he went on to donate 619 toys to Children’s Health Hospital in Dallas. Orion recalled “the smiles on the nurses’ faces” when he and his parents dropped off the toys. “That motivated me to partner with Tango Tab, a local dining app, and start my Race to 100,000 Meals for hungry families,” Orion said, as quoted by CDA Council

“Then Orion wondered, 'What's next?'. Just then he decided to launch his Race to 500,000 Books with support from several literacy nonprofits that included Book Drive for Kids, Literacy Achieves, Reading is Fundamental and Reading Partners.

Orion’s book ‘Race to Kindness’

The book dives deep into Orion’s ambitious journey, detailing his small acts of kindness, from a hopeful smile to actions that left an indelible impact. By choosing kindness at the age of 9, Orion showed the entire world that everyone matters and everyone can make a difference.