We are prioritizing grant funds to:
- Communities where 50% or more of the population identifies as Black/African-American, Hispanic/Latino, Indigenous Peoples, Asian, Hawaiian Native or Pacific Islander.
- Communities where at least 60% of students are eligible for free and reduced-price school meals.
- Community-based organizations where 50% or more of board and senior leadership identify as people of color.
- Rural and urban communities where schools/school districts face unique challenges in addressing hunger.
- Communities experiencing extreme economic hardship, determined through multiple data points.
- Communities where members experience intersecting social and environmental inequities.
How Grant Funds are Used
A key part of No Kid Hungry’s strategy is building partnerships and supporting federal child nutrition efforts through grantmaking.
Our grants provide schools and community-based organizations with the financial support they need to ensure kids have access to the nutritious food needed to live, learn and play.
The actual food served by public schools and community programs is paid for, partly, through the fees paid by students and by the federal government, which reimburses schools for the costs of the meals they serve, as well as through donations by local food banks.
But running a successful meals program requires more than food. School cafeterias and community centers need equipment like refrigerators and coolers and funding to pay for staff and outreach materials. If a school serves breakfast in the classroom, they need carts and cooler bags to deliver the meals.
While grant funds are not typically used to purchase food, No Kid Hungry’s goal is to provide as much flexibility as possible to grantees to support programs directly addressing childhood hunger and poverty.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, tens of thousands of school meals programs suddenly needed all kinds of equipment, from delivery trucks to protective gear for workers to packaging for delivery meals. Since March 2020, in response to the exacerbating effects of COVID-19 on issues of food insecurity, No Kid Hungry has provided over $150 million in grant funding to more than 2,900 organizations and school districts.
