Understanding Childhood Hunger

Solutions

Food events are the cornerstone of Share Our Strength's fundraising efforts. Each year, they engage millions of people across America in Share Our Strength's solution to childhood hunger, the No Kid Hungry Campaign.

All of them - Share Our Strength's Culinary Events, Dine Out For No Kid Hungry, Great American Bake Sale, and sponsored regional food festivals - raise funds to support this campaign and its work to make sure every child in America gets the food they need, every day.

How Dine Out For No Kid Hungry Helps

In 2011, funds raised through Dine Out For No Kid Hungry were invested in 18 No Kid Hungry state and city partnerships, and community organizations in all 50 states to help connect more at-risk kids to programs like school breakfast and summer meals. The No Kid Hungry campaign focuses on public nutrition programs that effectively keep children and their families from going hungry, yet require additional support to reach everyone who is eligible for them. Here is how the funds raised through Dine Out For No Kid Hungry are helping end childhood hunger by surrounding at-risk children with nutritious food where they live, learn and play:

• Helping to feed more kids during the summer, when school lunches are not available. For example:
• In 2011, with help from Share Our Strength, nearly 1 million additional summer meals were served in six states. More »
• The Arkansas No Kid Hungry Campaign helped the state of Arkansas add more than 100 new summer meals sites in 2011, many in counties that didn't have any! In June and July, they provided 185,000 more meals to children in need than they did the summer before.
• CitySquare expanded its mobile summer meals program to reach more than 18,000 kids with more than 700,000 meals in Dallas and Austin.
• In Eastern Tennessee's Appalachian foothills, Of One Accord Ministries created "The Lunch Box" by renovating two school buses into mobile cafeterias to provide free lunches and a safe, happy place for kids to eat them during the summer.
• A rural school district in Moriarty, N.M. used a mini-grant to purchase a picnic table and  umbrella that became a new summer meals site, providing a comfortable place for kids to come for lunch in a very high need community.

• Helping more kids start the day off on the right foot by expanding access to school breakfast. For example:
• More than 50 schools in North Carolina, Arkansas, Maryland and New Mexico are piloting innovative new breakfast programs like breakfast in the classroom to ensure all kids start the day with a healthy meal. More »
• The Illinois Hunger Coalition, New York City Coalition Against Hunger and the Center for Public Policy Priorities helped expand the availability of free breakfast for thousands of elementary and middle school students in Illinois, New York and Texas.

• Helping afterschool and pre-school programs provide nutritious meals and snacks. For example:
• More than 40 organizations are running afterschool programs that provide both educational enrichment activities for kids and a healthy snack or meal which can be the only meal they eat before school the next day.
• The Boys and Girls Club of San Francisco is upgrading the snack they provide to a full meal. More »
• Florida Introduces Physical Activity and Nutrition to Youth (FLIPANY) in southern Florida is helping three new program sites add snacks or meals to their afterschool programs, together reaching 150 kids.
• The Family League of Baltimore City is helping make sure that more than 800 family-based child care homes receive support through the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) for the snacks and meals they provide to preschool children.
• Share Our Strength's Cooking Matters for Child Care Professionals teaches child care professionals about healthy meal preparation and creating a healthy food environment for the kids in their care.

• Helping families meet their nutritional needs by expanding access to programs like SNAP (food stamps) and WIC (the Women, Infants and Children program). For example:
• Second Harvest Heartland in Minnesota is engaging a team of SNAP outreach workers to help make sure eligible families receive program benefits to help them put nutritious food on their tables.
• The Food Bank of South Jersey is providing similar outreach, with a focus on the recently unemployed.

• Teaching families how to prepare affordable, healthy and tasty food on a limited budget through our Cooking Matters program.

How No Kid Hungry Works

The No Kid Hungry campaign uses the funds it raises to:

1. Build state- and city-based No Kid Hungry partnerships of public and private decision-makers who develop a measurable action plan to end child hunger in their city or state.
2. Expand effective assistance, education and advocacy programs operated by local organizations across the country.
3. Raise awareness about the issue of childhood hunger and the No Kid Hungry strategy to end it.
4. Educate families at risk of hunger with the skills, knowledge and confidence they need to prepare affordable, healthy meals.

The campaign focuses on programs proven to provide kids with the nutritious food they need.

• School breakfast.
• Summer, afterschool, weekend and pre-school programs that provide healthy snacks or meals.
• SNAP (food stamps), WIC (Women, Infants and Children Assistance), and emergency food assistance (food pantries, soup kitchens, shelters).
• Skills-based nutrition education.