Our Impact
A Healthy Start to the School Year
A hungry child can't learn, which is why we fund organizations across the country that make sure kids have nutritious meals throughout each school day.
During the past year as Americans faced a recession and job losses, and the need for assistance grew, Share our Strength increased its grantmaking by more than $1 million dollars, issued 120 more grants than the previous year, and helped nearly 175,000 more children.
More than 35 million Americans are currently on SNAP (formerly food stamps). More than half of them are children.
Helping school kids by providing:
- 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 the day does.
- After school snack and meals: Many children arrive at school hungry having missed breakfast that morning or dinner the night before. Since 2004, Share Our Strength has helped establish 926 programs across the country where children can get healthy meals when school is not in session.
- Backpacks of healthy snacks: Another effective tool in the fight to end childhood hunger is the backpack program, which provides children with backpacks filled with nutritious foods for the weekends, when they might otherwise go hungry.
Share Our Strength at Work in Communities Like Yours
Maria's Story
Share Our Strength funds Camp Fire USA's backpack "Snack Pack Program" in Omaha, NE. Camp Fire USA told Share Our Strength about one young girl who is a part of their backpack program.
"Last year, on a Monday morning, Maria couldn't hear what her teacher was saying about long division. The growl of her empty stomach, along with snickers from her classmates, blocked out the lesson. She was hungry. With her mom working double shifts and the food stamps depleted, the eight-year-old hadn't eaten much more than soda-pop and French fries over the weekend. There was some leftover mac-and-cheese too, but the fridge was out and it had gone bad."
"That was a year ago...today, thanks to Camp Fire's innovative Snack Pack program, Maria receives a backpack filled with nutritious and child-friendly meals every Friday. Child-friendly cans of vegetables, dinner cups, breakfast cereal and fresh fruit take her through the weekend -- and that's when she shares with her little brother. Now, Maria can sit at her desk on Monday mornings and focus on something other than her hunger. Her teacher doesn't have to tell her to quit squirming so much. Even long-division is a little easier."
Learn more about Share Our Strength's impact on childhood hunger in America.
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