Innovative Approaches to Ending Childhood Hunger
Posted by Billy Shore on Tuesday, June 1, 2010
With nearly 17 million American children at risk of hunger and one in four children on food stamps for the first time in our nation’s history, it is safe to say that there has somewhere been a grievous failure at the expense of our children.
The temptation is always to point the finger at failures of financial support, or planning, or strategy, but the greatest failures are always failures of imagination.To provide incentives to overcome such failures of imagination when it comes to ending childhood hunger in the U.S., and to showcase the results, Share Our Strength has created the No Kid Hungry Innovation Awards.
For many years it was believed that with more than 35 million Americans living below the poverty line we would have to accept childhood hunger as a fact of life. But the failure to embrace and plan for eradicating childhood hunger was a huge failure of imagination. Eventually many of those leading the battle came to realize that children in America are not hungry because of a lack of food, or because of a lack of food and nutrition programs. We have no such shortages. Rather, children are hungry because they lack access to such programs. It is hard to think of a more unacceptable excuse. Especially because such food and nutrition programs like school breakfast, school lunch and summer feeding are long established and enjoy bipartisan support.
In the face of such failures the American spirit has always opted toward innovation and entrepreneurship, toward knocking down barriers and mapping new ways around obstacles to worthy goals. That’s what the No Kid Hungry Innovation Awards are meant to support. In the coming weeks, we’ll be sharing stories of the nominees and asking you to vote for winners in each of three categories. Winning organizations will receive a $25,000 grant to support their innovative programs.
We tend to think of innovation as something that takes place mostly in fields of technology and communications, but the nominees for the No Kid Hungry Innovation Awards – from Pennsylvania to California and many states in between – are demonstrating how creative approaches to community organizing, outreach to families, and increasing access to existing programs can lead directly to healthier children – fed, fit and fulfilled.
Not surprisingly, C&S Wholesale Grocers, a corporate partner of Share Our Strength and leading innovator in corporate social responsibility is sponsoring the No Kid Hungry Innovation Awards. By setting an example for both businesses and nonprofits to follow, C&S inspires innovation across both sectors and to the benefit of communities all across America.
We see this as just the beginning of a sustained effort to recognize and reward innovation where it is needed the most – on behalf of the most vulnerable and voiceless children in our country, who are also our most precious resource.
June 1, 2010 | 2 comment(s) | Tags: Innovation Awards, no kid hungry, summer meals
Comments
2 reader comments so far.
This is fantastic. I can't wait to see what ideas surface.
Posted by Lara on June 2, 2010
Hunger is not the primary issue facing our children today, but rather what they are eating. There is emerging evidence that high glycemic carbohydrates, a major component of our diet--especially for those on food stamps or with limited income, have significant adverse effects on brain function. This altered brain function seems to be contributing to the obesity epidemic in children as well as childhood psychiatric disorders, a much more serious problem than hunger. I would suggest that you change your focus to helping children find nutritious real food, not the fake food manufactured by many food companies, including some that support your organization.
Posted by Willaim L. Wilson, M.D. on November 14, 2010
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