No Kid Hungry: Giving Tuesday 2014

   Alright guys today I want to talk about a subject that is very near to my heart and is a serious issue in the country and in the world. Everyone knows about all the deals and shopping that is to be had Thanksgiving weekend, well after that is all over there is Giving Tuesday, a day where you can give back to the community and help a charity or organization that matters to you. If you don’t have one in mind then I would like you to consider this great cause.

   If you know me personally or even just through on here you probably know that I have two passions in life and they are food and working with kids. Well this is a way to put them together for me. No Kid Hungry through Share our Strength fights childhood hunger, which is alarmingly high for a country that is thought to have the best for everyone.  There are many things that are wrong in the world that disgust me but hearing about and seeing children hungry or not knowing where there next meal will be is at the top of my list. So I decided that I am going to join the fight to put an end to it.

Here are some facts from No Kind Hungry’s website.

• 16 million children live in homes that have a hard time putting food on the table
• That equals to 1 in 5!! That is an astonishing amount
• 22% of kids live in poverty
• 10.6 million eligible kids for free or reduced breakfast go without.
• 9 out of 10 teachers says that breakfast makes the difference in the way a child performs in school

   These are sad realities but the good news is there are organizations out there fighting. No Kid Hungry helps by connecting kids to nutrition programs like school breakfast and summer meals. They educate through their Cooking Matters classes “educates and empowers low-income families to stretch their food budgets so their kids get healthy meals at home.” (I will talk more about these in a bit).  They also bring awareness, shining a light on the problem at hand and connecting people with a way to help.

They don’t just talk, they are doing so much good in the country here are some of their accomplishments.

• 107 MILLION and counting meals to hungry kids
• Colorado now has a law that kids eat breakfast after the bell rings
• LA has made it so every kids eats breakfast in the morning as well
• 100,000 families have gone through Cooking Matters classes

Now what can you do to help?

• You can donate, $1 can provide a child with 10 meals, and you can see that they use their donations are used effectively
• You can advocate.  There are multiple ways that you can speak out and give a voice to these hungry kids.
• You can volunteer. Through cooking matters classes or store tours. Not through No Kid Hungry you can help with hunger in your community by helping in food banks.
• You can fundraiser. There are multiple ways you could raise money to help the fight. Host a bake sale, turn your birthday or other event into a fundraiser.

For other ideas go to their website.

   A couple weeks ago I finally got the chance to help with a cooking matters class. "These classes teach participants to shop smarter, use nutrition information to make healthier choices and cook delicious, affordable meals." The classes are team taught by a chef and a nutrition educator, the course is six weeks long and each class covers grocery shopping, meal prep, food bu

dgeting and nutrition and at the end of the class each participant takes home a bag of groceries.

   The class, I was with, was taught in a school cafeteria and the participants were parents of students in the school. We started the night with getting everything ready for dinner we were making, roasted chicken and veggies. Each participant has a job and they learn how to make the recipe and follow the directions. When it was in the oven they went and had a nutrition lesson. I really liked how everything is explained in a way that everyone can understand it and implement it into their lives.  Everyone loved the meal as well even the kids who got to eat a fresh healthy meal, watching them eat it up and try all the veggies was the highlight of my night.  I hope to be able to do more classes and even start leading them.

   You can find this information and much more on the No KidHungry website. If you are in Arkansas and want to help fight hunger another great organization that works with no kid hungry and all the other hunger relief organizations is Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance they have all sorts of information and how you can help.

On Giving Tuesday if you don’t have an organization close to your heart and want to give to someone that is doing great things and helping children then I hope you join me in supporting No Kid Hungry this year.