Smiles everywhere! In classrooms, school cafeterias, during the summer months, after a delicious home-made meal. Each one of them is a testament of the power of your support and generosity. Join us on a journey as we celebrate the smiles that remind us why our work is so important.
Big Sunshine Smiles in the Summer
Summer is the hungriest time of the year. During this time, many of the meals that kids receive at school disappear and families struggle to make ends meet. With your support, we are ensuring they can reach summer meals available to them.
We support organizations and schools providing summer feeding programs with crucial funds for staffing and equipment, advocate for rules that make it easy for them to provide these meals and create resources for families to find free meals near them – like our texting and WhastApp lines and our Free Meal Finder Maps.
|
|
|
|
An Early Start with a Full Belly
"Kids are vulnerable, they're sensitive. You want to create a good environment to help them thrive. Just to say that they're resilient is not okay," Dr. Kofi Essel, a pediatrician in Washington, DC, explained.
He understands the importance of proper nutrition at an early age. He explained that during these early years, children's brains and bodies are developing rapidly. Without the proper nutrients and with the toxic stress of not having enough food, children may experience delays in physical and cognitive development, which can have long-term consequences.
For this reason, we have made access to healthy meals during the first five years of kids’ lives a priority. Our work has included providing equipment and technical assistance to childcare centers that provide meals to 0-5 kids, advocating for WIC and partnering with the American Association of Pediatrics (AAP), so doctors like Dr. Essel have the tools they need to connect babies to crucial resources.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Most Important Meal of the Day
Cafeteria workers are heroes. Every morning, they wake up before dawn to prepare school breakfast so kids all over the country start the day strong.
For families, this breakfast makes a huge difference. With the prices of food increasing everywhere and many parents working two or even three jobs sometimes with overnight shifts, many of them don’t have the time to prepare breakfast before school.
No Kid Hungry has partnered with hundreds of schools all over the country to create programs like breakfast in the classroom that increase the number of kids that eat breakfast in school, making it easy for school cafeteria heroes to provide these meals.
Teachers like Diego Mendez in California see the difference it makes in their students. There are fewer visits to the nurse; the kids are energized and ready to learn.
Speaking Up for Kids
Advocacy work is essential in ensuring all kids have access to the meals they need to thrive. With your support, we work at the local, state and federal level to secure crucial funding and common-sense rules that will ensure families have what they need to access healthy meals.
This was a year of important victories. From a game-changing bill ensuring that kids in rural areas can access crucial summer meals to a historic win in Texas that ensures 70,000 more kids get free breakfast and a group of chefs visiting Capitol Hill to advocate for SNAP in the Farm Bill, your support continues to make a difference in the lives of thousands of kids.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Smiles that Drive Us
Your generosity and support have an impact in the lives of real kids all around the country. These meals fuel their dreams, their days of learning and growing and their smiles.
With your help, Steffany works to become an engineer or a mechanic, Madianna continues creating beautiful fashion designs, Larry trains to become a football star, Daniel enjoys summer running outside at his grandma’s, and Addison learns to cook with her mom.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
As we end the year, let’s celebrate all the kids you have supported and let’s continue our work in 2024. This is a problem we know how to solve and, together, we can make No Kid Hungry a reality.
Ways You Can Help:
Donate: 1 dollar can help provide 10 meals for kids in need. Your support will help us fund meal programs all over the country and help us advocate for policies that will help kids get the meals they need.
Speak up for kids: 1 in 5 kids in the United States is affected by hunger. Tell your lawmaker to protect SNAP and other federal nutrition programs that feed kids.
