Enterprise Issues With Siaka Momoh
It is stale news that Nigerians are hungry and angry. Yes we are. This piece (abridged) by a professional colleague in the US, Danielle Nierenberg, President, Food Tank, addresses the issue of hunger in the US and some other climes. The first slot was published in this space last Thursday. It may be useful to our hunger managers. Have a good read.
In Dallas, Equal Heart works with libraries to serve summer meals to children. The nonprofit organization helps to provide wholesome meals that come with kid-friendly activities, such as book clubs, art classes, computer classes, and crochet groups. In 2015, some branches served up to 100 children per day. Equal Heart also runs a Direct-to-Door program in Texas and Colorado, aiming to deliver meals straight to residences.
The Family League of Baltimore provides free breakfast, lunch, and dinner at summer meal sites throughout the city of Baltimore. The organization also partners with YouthWorks to give adolescents the opportunity to develop job and leadership experience by working with Baltimore’s summer meal sites.
In Dallas, Equal Heart works with libraries to serve summer meals to children. The nonprofit organization helps to provide wholesome meals that come with kid-friendly activities, such as book clubs, art classes, computer classes, and crochet groups. In 2015, some branches served up to 100 children per day. Equal Heart also runs a Direct-to-Door program in Texas and Colorado, aiming to deliver meals straight to residences.
The Family League of Baltimore provides free breakfast, lunch, and dinner at summer meal sites throughout the city of Baltimore. The organization also partners with YouthWorks to give adolescents the opportunity to develop job and leadership experience by working with Baltimore’s summer meal sites.
Based in Oklahoma City, Feed the Children’s Summer Food and Education Program operates 34 sites in Oklahoma to provide consistent meals to children. The sites are located in libraries, camps, churches, and schools, where young students are physically and mentally stimulated during the summer months. The program also distributes books, school supplies, backpacks, and sports supplies.
Feeding America is a national nonprofit that works at local levels to connect children to healthy summer meals in safe locations. The organization works all over the United States to increase participation in summer feeding programs for low-income children. This is done by raising awareness of feeding programs and sites and making use of local resources to distribute meals. In San Diego County, Feeding America San Diego sponsors 10 SFSP sites and works with community organizations and schools to host outdoor events. Feeding America also runs a Kids Café program, which works with local sites across the country to provide meals, education, and physical activities in supervised environments.
Feeding Our Future, an initiative of the nonprofit organization Second Harvest, works in Toronto, Canada, to ensure free meals for children in summer camps. The program partners with the Sodexo Foundation to prepare and deliver healthful lunches, and it has delivered 100,000 meals since 2005.
Based in Ontario, the Food 4 Kids Summer Feeding Program (SFP) is Canada’s first regional program that works to alleviate food insecurity when children are on summer break. The program partners with local food banks to provide 500 children with healthy food packages, such as packages containing ingredients for vegetarian chili. SFP ensures that at least 50 percent of the whole foods provided are sourced from Ontario.
Healthy Returns is a D.C. Central Kitchen initiative that partners with 32 agencies to offer after-school and summer meals to children in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area. Through these partnerships, the initiative strives to not only provide consistent meals but to empower children through counseling, nutrition education, tutoring, outreach, liberal arts, and job preparedness. For instance, Healthy Returns provides meals and nutrition education to children involved with Jubilee Housing, an organization which provides youth programming to the Adams Morgan neighborhood in Washington, D.C.
Based in Illinois, the Hillsboro Area Hospital operates a summer program that improves access to its free meals with a hired school bus. Participants in the program can arrive at the hospital in the morning to socialize and engage in physical activities and library events. The program also gives older children the opportunity to develop leadership skills, such as helping with morning check-ins and assisting with gym days. According to Hillsboro Area Hospital’s president, Rex Brown, the program aims for a sustainable and replicable model so that other hospitals will be inspired to adopt similar initiatives.
The Lunchbox is a mobile café that provides free summer meals to children in Northeast Vermont, where rural families struggle to secure reliable transportation to food. The Lunchbox program is an initiative of the Green Mountain Farm-to-School nonprofit organization. The café’s meal ingredients are sourced from local farms, and the program also works with retail outlets to improve access to local foods for recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
Based in Luton, England, MakeLunch is a network of churches and community groups in England, Scotland, and Wales working to offer free and healthy meals to low-income children during holiday breaks. Through this network of Lunch Kitchens, MakeLunch has provided more than 36,000 meals to children since its establishment in 2011. Many of the Lunch Kitchens also involve kids in cooking, crafts, and activities.
The National Charity Partnership’s holiday lunch clubs, found throughout the U.K., provide free meals to parents, caregivers, and children when schools are on breaks. The partnership’s clubs supply games for kids and teach parents and caregivers how to create meals with wholesome, affordable ingredients…
