$50,000 Grant Fights Childhood Hunger
250 Children Benefit From Food 4 Kids
One in five children in Oklahoma struggle with hunger each day. However, 250 chronically hungry elementary school children in Oklahoma County will have food to eat every weekend and school holiday through the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma’s Food 4 Kids program thanks to a $50,000 grant from the Austin Community Foundation designating the Food Bank as a Dell Foundation Healthy Communities Partner.
Food 4 Kids provides backpacks filled with nutritious, kid-friendly food to chronically hungry elementary students over weekends and school holidays when the school’s free and reduced meal program is not available. Last year, nearly 8,000 children in 305 schools in central and western Oklahoma benefited from the program.
A recent survey of Food 4 Kids school coordinators, teachers and administrators has shown that students’ school performance, attendance and self-esteem have all improved as a result of participating in the program.
“It’s unacceptable for children to go to bed with the pain of hunger in their bellies,” said Rodney Bivens, “That’s why generous gifts like this one are so important in the fight against hunger in Oklahoma.”
A $200 donation will provide a chronically hungry child with a backpack of food every weekend for an entire school year. To make a donation, or to learn more about Food 4 Kids, contact Lisa Perry at lperry@regionalfoodbank.org, call 405.600.3107, or visit regionalfoodbank.org.
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 351 million pounds of food to feed Oklahoma’s hungry. Visit our website at www.regionalfoodbank.org.
