Sodexo Helps Fight Childhood Hunger

May 17, 2010

Thanks to the Sodexo Foundation’s “Feeding our Future” program, $18,000 will be donated to the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma’s Summer Feeding program to help alleviate childhood hunger during the summer when school meals are not available.

“Thanks to Feeding our Future and the wonderful partners in Oklahoma, children who rely on free and reduced meals during the school year can join their classmates looking forward to summer vacation because the respite from classes will not mean going to bed hungry,” said Stephen J. Brady, president of the Sodexo Foundation. “One in four people on line at food banks across this country is a child, an injustice compounded because it often means that they fall behind their better nourished peers; part of the cycle of hunger, lower achievement and poverty.”

Beginning in June, the Summer Food Service Program will provide a free, nutritious breakfast, and/or lunch daily to children under 18 at selected sites and times during the week. Meals will be provided to all children without charge and are the same for all children.

“No child should have to worry where their next meal will come from,” said Rodney Bivens, executive director of the Regional Food Bank.  “I want to thank the Sodexo Foundation for their dedication to fighting childhood hunger. Because of their generous donation, we can ensure that children will receive adequate nutrition during the summer months when school meals are not available.”

In addition to funding childhood hunger programs, Sodexo employees will be volunteering at the Regional Food Bank on Wednesday, May 19.   

For more information on the program, or to make a donation, contact Paula Clayton 405.600.3130 or visit regionalfoodbank.org.  For more information about the Sodexo Foundation please visit SodexoFoundation.org.  

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The Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma is a private, 501(c) (3) nonprofit organization that acts as a link through which the food industry and community may donate food and other goods. The products are then distributed to nearly 700 schools and charitable feeding programs in 53 central and western Oklahoma counties. In the last fiscal year, the Food Bank distributed 28.5 million pounds of food and product to help the charitable community effectively feed people in need. Since its inception in 1980, the Food Bank has distributed more than 321 million pounds of food to feed Oklahoma’s hungry. Visit our website at www.regionalfoodbank.org.

Sodexo in North America
Sodexo, Inc. (www.sodexoUSA.com), a member of Sodexo Group, is a leading provider of Comprehensive Service Solutions serving more than ten million customers daily in corporations, health care, long term care, retirement, schools, higher education, government and remote sites. Headquartered in Gaithersburg, Md., Sodexo, Inc. operates in the U.S., Canada and Mexico, with $7.7 billion (USD) in annual revenue and 120,000 employees. The Sodexo Foundation (www.SodexoFoundation.org) is an independent charitable organization that, since its founding in 1999, has made more than $12.7 million in grants to fight hunger in America. Visit the corporate blog at www.sodexoUSA.com/blog.