It all started when Nancy Leville, a sophomore music business major at Belmont, couldn’t find a piece of fruit to snack on while walking to Yankee Stadium in the South Bronx. Igniting an interest in understanding food deserts and their prevalence in the U.S., Leville wrote a paper for a high school class and discovered that 83 percent of American children are not provided with the nutrients they need to thrive—regardless of their socioeconomic status or where they grew up. Armed with this information and a newly found passion for providing children with the resources they need to be healthy, Leville began the journey to “Save God’s Kids” (SGK).
Soon after, Leville moved to Nashville to attend Belmont. Beginning as a commercial music major, Leville’s future would change with the first person she met—Nancy Daines, a musician and fellow student. Soon after, Leville said the purpose she was led to Belmont became increasingly clear. “I had been called to Belmont to bring SGK to the world and to find Christian talent that could help deliver the message, beginning with my Phi Mu ‘big sister,’ Nancy,” she said. Within her first week of classes, Leville transferred to the Curb College to study music business, her current program.
Since developing her passion, Leville has launched SGK, a youth-driven movement to strengthen the church by nourishing the mind, body and spirit of all its members and empower young people to become stronger in their faith. She began by compiling her research into a proprietary nutrition solution called GoBrite and authoring two books, Save God’s Kids for parents and the I’m God’s Kid Activity Book for kids, designed to represent the five BRITE colors found in God’s nourishing foods.
After publication, the One World Literacy Foundation adopted the GoBrite secular version of the program, I’m a BRITE Kid and the solution was introduced to the New York City Public School System. More recently, Leville and her foundation, Global Children’s Wellness (GCW), changed the direction of their work to focus on a newly published study indicating that some of the nation’s unhealthiest children are sitting in churches. Armed with this information and understanding that parents need support to provide children with healthy options, GCW expanded the Go-Brite nutrition solution to serve the entire family. GCW is now partnering with thousands of churches across America, and soon the world, where the entire Save God’s Kids solution will be made available free.
Thanks to her personal connections and time at Belmont, Leville said she is proud to say the GCW team is entirely youth-driven. With Belmont students who are studying publishing, journalism and communications, among other things, alongside her, Leville said GCW’s future is bright and has Belmont to thank for a good amount of its success. “When I entered Belmont, I quickly realized that I was surrounded by some of the most amazingly talented Christian students in the world,” Leville said. “I knew I was meant to utilize that to help nourish the spirit of millions of young followers.”
For Leville and her team, the ultimate goal is to live out the purposes they were created to live and change the lives of many in the process. “The most important thing I have learned is that God has a plan for each of us and that true happiness can only be achieved when that plan is being fulfilled,” Leville said. “I want to create a movement to stop the epidemic of chronic illnesses that are weakening the church and putting a generation of God’s kids at risk.”
As for GCW, there are still big dreams on the horizon including an online personal eating analysis that is under development, an online customizable nutritional plan for families to use and the creation of a Christian music label to support the foundation’s work.
