Kids Shouldn’t Have to Worry About Meals @FeedTheChildren #HelpKidsBeKids

Disclosure:  This post is part of  The Motherhood Feed The Children campaign.  I was compensated me for my time.

As an adult I feel like I have a million things to worry about, then I look at my children and wish I had those carefree thoughts again.  My children are fortunate to have meals and snacks everyday, but there are so many children that unfortunately go to sleep hungry.  Feed The Children is one of the world’s leading anti-hunger organizations, with their vision being a world where no child goes to bed hungry.  They help kids be kids by providing healthy food, safe water, education, and job training to kids and their families in all 50 states and in 18 countries.  Kids shouldn’t have to worry where their next meal is coming from or if they will even get one.

To help make their mission a reality, Feed the Children is launching a U.S. pilot program in Oklahoma City to end child hunger.  The pilot program is called The Oklahoma Summer Food and Education Program and it encompasses Feed the Children’s vision and commitment to unite like-minded organizations to defeat the status quo of hunger.  Why start in Oklahoma?  Well in Oklahoma the school lunch program that lower-income families depend on shuts down for summer break, which means about 300,000 children may be left without nutritious meals.  The USDA Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) helps fill the gap over the summer in Oklahoma, which is also Feed the Children’s home state, very few other agencies have stepped forward to help the summer meals program.  Oklahoma actually has the lowest participation in SFSP, ranking 51st in the country – basically this means they don’t get a lot of help in Oklahoma to feed kids.

What will The Oklahoma Summer Food and Education Program provide?

• Better Access to More Meals – Feed the Children will provide115,000 meals, many of which are purchased with private funds, that can be brought home.

• Nourishing Bodies and Minds – There will be 11 USDA FNS-approved feeding sites where Feed the Children will provide books and educational resources for children as well as backpacks and school supplies.  They are also testing out several innovative activities that may help children excel during the school year, while conducting a study on why some low-income parents send their children for the meals and others do not.

The results for how The Oklahoma Summer Food and Education pilot program will be offered as evidence-based research to Feed the Children partners to identify ways to better solve summer food loss.  I love that that there is a program out there trying to help kids over the summertime when they are often forgotten about.  I know in my school district low-income kids can get free lunches and breakfasts, but I never thought about what they do in the summertime.  I cherished my carefree childhood and I wish that for every child out there.  Food is the last thing kids should have to worry about, if ever.