Our 10-Point Plan to End Childhood Hunger in America

To solve a multi-layered problem like childhood hunger, you have to start with a strong plan of attack.

At Share Our Strength, we don’t just talk about ending childhood hunger in America-we have a strategic plan to do it. It begins with supporting the most successful organizations working to end hunger in the United States while simultaneously focusing our efforts on three primary areas:

• Increase access to public and private programs that provide food to children and their families.
• Strengthen community resources that connect children to healthy food.
• Improve families’ knowledge about available programs and how to get the most from limited resources.

There’s Strength in Numbers

At Share Our Strength, we understand this completely. That’s why we’ve developed a powerful 10-point plan to help us effectively end childhood hunger in America. The plan helps bridge the gaps between existing programs that work and the families who need them. It’s a great plan, and we invite you to join us in making it happen.

1. Provide all children with a healthy breakfast. On a typical school day, 55.4% of America’s schoolchildren who are eligible for a healthy free or reduced-price school breakfast don’t get one. Our goal is to make sure every kid who can receive such a healthy start to his/her day does.
2. Encourage healthy food choices. Courses that teach practical nutrition information, cooking skills and food budgeting help families learn how to get more healthy meals out of tight budgets. Our plan supports such nutrition education programs—including Share Our Strength’s Operation Frontline—as ways to address childhood hunger, obesity and other diet-related diseases.
3. Help eligible families meet needs at home with access to food stamps. Nationally, only 60% of those eligible for the federal Food Stamp program receive benefits. Half of those recipients are children. Share Our Strength’s plan supports work to make food stamps more accessible to everyone who is eligible.
4. Improve the economic security of working families. Share Our Strength’s plan helps families achieve economic stability by supporting organizations that help families take advantage of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) for working families and the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) programs. In 2003, the EITC lifted 4.4 million people out of poverty, including 2.4 million children.
5. Increase families’ access to fresh, affordable produce in their own neighborhoods. For families living in America’s poor and working-class neighborhoods, fresh produce is both hard to find and expensive. Our plan supports efforts that bring solutions such as full-service supermarkets, farmers markets that accept food stamps and community gardens to these neighborhoods.
6. Help afterschool programs provide healthy meals and snacks. You’ve heard all the news about what kids are eating in school. Share Our Strength is also concerned about what they’re eating (or not) after school. Our goal is to encourage healthy snacking habits that kids will take into the future.
7. Expand the reach of summer meals programs. For too many kids, school vacations can be hungry times. Less than 10% of children eligible for summer food programs participate, leaving more than 16 million kids who don’t. Our plan supports efforts to make these programs accessible to more kids who need them and to make sure that the foods they eat are healthy.
8. Ensure access to balanced, nutritious diets for all pregnant women and preschool children. Good childhood health starts with good prenatal nutrition that continues through the preschool years. Yet too few eligible moms take advantage of the federal WIC program that provides nutrition education and supplemental food for qualifying families. Our plan supports efforts to enroll more eligible moms in these programs and others like them.
9. Ensure access to nutritious food in shelters and food pantries. Food banks, pantries, shelters and other emergency food providers need more food, especially healthy food. Fresh protein, produce and dairy products rank at the top of the list of the foods that pantries and shelters need most. Our plan supports efforts to help these providers offer a steady supply of healthier options.
10. Provide comprehensive public education about available resources and assistance. Families at risk of hunger need more and better information about the programs that will help their kids eat healthy meals no matter how tough things get financially. This is why education is a steady theme in our plan and why we support those who provide such education and outreach as well as those who advocate for it.

Take a Closer Look

Learn more about the invisible childhood hunger in America and our strategy to end it. Download Share Our Strength’s Plan to End Childhood Hunger in America (1.16MB).