Did you know March is National Nutrition month? Last week Henry and I put together some packages for our local food bank with Ella’s Kitchen and Earth’s Best and their partnership with the charity No Kid Hungry whose mission is to end child hunger here in the U.S. We often do charitable activities during the holidays like donating toys or working at a food kitchen, so it was nice to do something outside of the month of December. Here are some photos of our afternoon…
I was pretty surprised to find out how many students come to school hungry every day here in the United States (1 in 5 kids!). Even with breakfast offered at school, it’s still an increasing problem. You can read more about it on the No Kid Hungry website. I love when good quality, organic brands like Ella’s Kitchen and Earth’s Best are trying to help do something about that problem by partnering with No Kid Hungry. They’ve donated over 1.5 million free meals to kids here in our country who need them. You can buy the Ella’s Kitchen and Earth’s Best pouches with specially marked No Kid Hungry packaging only at select Walmarts.
After organizing the food into three bags, we headed out to donate them at a food bank. There were several food banks right in our neighborhood, including a bank and the YMCA. We dropped off our bags on the way to the library that afternoon. What charitable activities do you do with your kids? I’d love to make this a regular activity for our family.
This post is sponsored by Ella’s Kitchen and Earth’s Best in their support of No Kid Hungry. Share how you donate time with your family on instagram and tag @SayYesBlog and #NoKidHungry #FeedKidsInNeed. We’ll chose a winner and donate a meal basket valued at $100 on your behalf to No Kid Hungry.
It is great to see you getting Henry involved in charitable activities, but seeing as I work at an anti-hunger non-profit, I’d like to share two important things in this comment:
1. Food banks are indeed a necessary part of our food and poverty safety net. But unfortunately they are not the solution and food drives are a drop in the bucket compared to actually ending hunger in the US. While they are an easy activity to engage a child in, after they’ve packed up the bags, what would make an even bigger impact is calling or writing your local elected officials. The Child Nutrition Act (which governs school lunch/breakfast programs, WIC, and other federal food and nutrition programs) is up for reauthorization in October (happens every 5 years). Tell your local elected officials you support an Act that makes the programs more nutritious, makes progress towards ending child hunger and food insecurity, supports regional food procurement, and reduces obesity and other diet-related diseases. Additionally, the most recent Farm Bill included cuts to SNAP (food stamps), which millions of low-income Americans rely on to provide food for their families in tough times. Tell your elected officials you are opposed to these cuts, which put the burden on charities who simply can’t handle the demand.
2. You mentioned purchasing the foods at Walmart. And Walmart is a part of the hunger and poverty problem in the US. The low wages they pay their employees drives them to food banks because they can’t otherwise feed their families.
Again, I truly appreciate you getting Henry involved and am glad you’ve chosen to focus on child hunger, which I obviously think is a very important issue! But I hope next time, your effort can have an even bigger impact.
It is a great thing for you to do to help others, and really smart to get your kids involved. Thanks for sharing!