No Kid Hungry: Feeding Resilience

Over 907,617,453 school meals have been missed by kids in need due to current closures, and that number is continuing to grow. No Kid Hungry, a campaign by the nonprofit organization Share Our Strength, is offering real-time emergency grant funding to schools and community organizations to make sure low-income kids and families have access to the nutrition they need. To date, it has awarded more than $5.3 million in grants to 191 organizations across 44 states and D.C.

In Louisiana, No Kid Hungry is teaming up with local and statewide partners to provide resources and support to schools and community organizations across the state. Specifically, it is a member of Mayor Cantrell's COVID-19 Youth Services Task Force and is coordinating with individual schools and partners like Dyrades YMCA to support meal programs for kids. It is also in close touch with schools in Caddo Parish, Webster Parish, Lafayette Parish, East Baton Rouge, Livingston Parish and more. It is working with Feeding Louisiana to ensure it is collaborating in efforts to reach children and families alike. In the coming days, it hopes to be able to leverage state data to populate its texting hotline to let parents and caregivers know about emergency food distribution sites in their communities. Here’s a complete breakdown of the No Kid Hungry grants in action across our state:

• Second Harvest Food Bank of Greater New Orleans and Acadiana is using No Kid Hungry grant funds to deliver an estimated 2,000 free meals a day to schools, recreation centers and food pantries.
• The East Baton Rouge School District is using No Kid Hungry grant funds to feed children 10,000 nutritious breakfasts and lunches a day at nine grab-n-go meals sites.
• The Three O'Clock Project is a local nonprofit that provides afterschool meals and education for at-risk kids in Baton Rouge. They're using No Kid Hungry grant funds to produce as many as 20,000 meals each day and deliver them to children throughout the community.
• The Joe LeBlanc Food Pantry serves low-income families across the small town of Minden in Webster Parish. With No Kid Hungry grant funds, they're feeding 418 children and providing emergency food supplies for families in need.
• The Dryades YMCA Mobile Youth Pantry will be a community meal distribution resource for youth and teens in Central City, New Orleans, providing evening and weekend meals.
• FirstLine Schools in Orleans Parish is using No Kid Hungry grant funds to support their partnership with New Orleans Public Schools (NOLA-PS) to operate 10 mobile sites across the city.
• Sankofa is using No Kid Hungry grant funds to support their work to provide daily meal services in the Lower Ninth Ward area of New Orleans for 300 children whose families have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Morehouse Parish School Board is using No Kid Hungry grant funds to support their efforts to serve 1,300 meals a day to children in the community.
• KIPP New Orleans is leveraging No Kid Hungry grant funds to provide breakfast and lunch to thousands of students in Orleans Parish, including offering multiple locations for meal pick up to ensure families can access these meals.
• Fresh Food Factor and Volunteers of America Southeast Louisiana work together to use No Kid Hungry grant funds to support the more than 4,000 meals they provide to families and children in Orleans and Jefferson parishes each day.

Furthermore, No Kid Hungry has developed a new resource, FAQs on Pandemic-EBT and Coronavirus Response-SNAP, which answers questions related to the Pandemic-EBT (P-EBT) and Coronavirus Response SNAP (CR-SNAP) programs authorized by the Families First Coronavirus Response Act. No Kid Hungry has also updated its FAQs on Child Nutrition Program Options Available During School Closures Related to the Coronavirus resource to account for recent policies adopted by Congress and new waivers and guidance from USDA.

In addition to raising funds and providing resources to aid those in need, No Kid Hungry also aims to raise awareness. On Friday, April 3rd, it hosted a Twitter Storm to thank the incredible folks in the field working to make sure kids are getting meals during COVID-19 school closures. During the one hour Twitter Storm, it saw 1,445 posts from 413 individuals using the hashtag #ThankAHungerHero – with 111,565,300 total impressions. We encourage people to keep using it to thank those working on the front lines to make sure kids have access to the food they need during this crisis.

Click here for more information on Share Our Strength’s No Kid Hungry campaign and how you can help its efforts.