What Is Kids Against Hunger?
Every hour of every day 12 children per minute die of starvation or malnutrition related diseases. Kids Against Hunger is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization whose mission is to end that tragedy. Kids Against Hunger packages and ships highly nutritious, life-saving meals to starving and malnourished children in developing countries and the United States. We do this by mobilizing the energy and caring of American children, teens, and adults on behalf of hungry children around the world. Kids Against Hunger seeks to end the literal hunger of poor children receiving the meals, but also satisfies a hunger among prosperous Americans, a hunger for meaning and contribution.
We have a national packaging network made up of our headquarters facility in New Hope, Minnesota, a packaging division in Mankato, Minnesota, and satellites in 14 states and Canada staffed by volunteers who package the meals. In total, the packaging network has the capacity to produce over 20 million meals per year. We also work with other organizations seeking long term solutions to the systemic causes of hunger. Our aim is for our meals to provide a stable nutritional base from which the recipient peoples can move their families from starvation to self-sufficiency. Since its launch, Kids Against Hunger has fed about 50 million meals to children in more than 40 countries through the efforts of over 100,000 volunteers.
What Is Your Vision And Mission Statement?
It is our mission to significantly reduce the number of hungry children in the USA and to feed God’s starving children throughout the world.
It is our vision to set up food packaging satellites in the USA and around the world, and to spearhead community and youth volunteer packaging of Kids Against Hunger’s highly nutritious meals. It is also our vision to deliver Kids Against Hunger’s food through partnerships with humanitarian organizations in the USA and worldwide.
How Was Kids Against Hunger Started?
The organization was founded in March 1999 by Richard Proudfit, a successful entrepreneur. In 1974 Richard volunteered on a medical mission to Honduras after Hurricane Fifi had ravaged that country. Profoundly affected by the starvation he saw among the children there, he made a decision to commit his life and financial resources to solving the enormous problem of world hunger. His life’s work became clear to him – feed these starving children.
Richard Proudfit enlisted leading executives at Cargill, Pillsbury, General Mills, and Archer Daniels Midland to formulate a food that would meet all the nutritional requirements of severely malnourished children for physical growth and mental development. The result was the creation of a balanced, high nutrition food that can reverse the starvation process, and restore a child’s health and mental alertness.
What Is So Special About The Food You Package?
The meal ingredients are formulated by food scientists to provide a rich source of easily digestible protein, carbohydrates, and vitamins needed by an undernourished child’s body and mind. The food is also acceptable to the broad diversity of ethnic tastes and religious differences around the world. The food offers all 9 of the essential amino acids required for complete nutrition, something that can’t be said about other typical food relief sources such as rice or beans alone. It is also very simple to prepare, requiring only 6 cups of boiling water to make a complete meal.
You Package Food To Ship Worldwide…What Is Involved In That Process?
We purchase bulk raw ingredients and store them at our warehouse. Then, volunteers like you come in and assemble the bags using our ingredients. The bags are then boxed up, loaded onto a pallet and stored to await shipment. Our international shipping is provided, free of charge, by the United States government. We tell them how many containers we have ready (a container is the trailer that semi-trucks tow) and where we want to ship it. They give us approval, pick up the cargo and transport it by plane or by ship to the destination country.
How Do You Decide Where The Food Will Be Sent?
We prefer to ship where the need is the greatest, but we have to be careful. We have relationships with NGOs (non-governmental organizations) on the ground in the receiving countries and when one of our international partners appeals to us, we put them in line for a shipment. We can only ship to places where we know the food will be properly and freely distributed through an organization that can handle such an effort. Accountability is key - we need to have a good relationship with people we trust to do the right thing, because we can’t always be there in the countries we’re shipping to when the food is being distributed.
What About Local Agriculture? If You Ship Your Food For Free, Won’t That Hurt Their Economy?
We are in constant communication with our partners on the ground regarding just such an issue. It doesn’t do good for us to go into a situation where we’re causing harm. Our NGOs will tell us that their region is suffering a drought and the crops have been destroyed, and what little food they do have available is too expensive for the local people. If there is a viable agricultural commodity in an area, the situation wouldn’t be desperate enough for an appeal from an NGO, and we take steps to determine the actual need.
You Send Meals To Prevent People From Death By Starvation. What Happens When That Food Is Gone?
It’s not enough to simply fill the stomach and walk away. It’s not enough to simply send food. This is why we partner with people on the ground who promote continued sustainability in these regions. What does that mean? Well, it means that some of our partners are setting up schools, teaching the local people how to farm and ways to improve their health. They administer necessary emergency medicines and teach people about proper hygiene and basic first aid. There are many efforts made to teach the local people how to advance so that they are never on the brink of starvation again. That’s not to say we never deliver to the same place twice - sometimes the children in the area need a little extra boost of nutrition so we will go in with another smaller shipment when necessary.
What Types Of People Volunteer To Package The Food?
While our name implies that children are the source of our volunteers, in practice our volunteers come from all age groups and walks of life. Individuals and groups from churches, synagogues, schools, social clubs, businesses, senior centers, and civic groups are common sources of volunteers for packaging our food. Children from the fifth grade on seem to have the best experience in packaging events. Teens require minimal adult supervision and often plan their own packaging events. Some of the best volunteer experiences come when children, parents, and grandparents work together as a family. Schools and corporations often do packaging with us as a community service event.
What Are Your Food Packaging Hours?
Packaging sessions can be scheduled Monday through Friday between 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. A packaging session is usually two hours long and we therefore recommend that you schedule a starting time of no later than 2:30 p.m. to allow for cleanup. To schedule a packaging session, please call Richard Thomas at (561) 880-7561.
Can You Come To Our School / Church / Business To Do A Packaging Event?
We do not have a mobile packaging unit, but you are welcome to set up a time to come to our New Hope location to package the meals (30 people max.). We do several off-site packaging events each year, but are only able to do so if your team can raise the funds needed to cover the cost of ingredients and travel and is able to follow our mobile packaging event guidelines. To schedule a special packaging event, please contact Richard Thomas at (561) 880-7561.
How does the food get to hungry children, and how can you be sure it gets to them?
We work closely with our distribution partners - churches, nonprofit organizations, and U.S. government agencies operating in poor countries - to distribute the meals prepared by our volunteers. We seek out organizations that have proven track records of successfully getting the food to the children and keeping it out of the hands of corrupt government officials and criminals. We always require our feeding partners to document how they distributed the food and provide us with pictures of the children who receive it.
