Some Kids Are Hungry: How To Give Back on Thanksgiving Weekend

Some Kids Are Hungry: How To Give Back on Thanksgiving Weekend

With Thanksgiving this week, good food is on everyone’s mind. And with Black Friday now just over, spending money in the best way possible is also.

So, now that many have found a great deal on a new T.V that the whole family can enjoy, and some quality shoes for a great price, some are choosing to use what’s left over in the spending pot to combine the ideas of food and dollars to help someone who needs a good meal.

Sheryl and Frank Holden of Pennsylvania say they love to get involved. “It’s a way to give back, for us. I love doing it. We do it every year we can,” says Sheryl. “Our church provides support for hungry kids in the local schools, and we donate some money to the organization that runs it. Every bit helps.”

A new study from St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto, Canada and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health has found that more than 18 million women in low- and middle-income countries around the world are severely undernourished,

And in the U.S, even while being a high-income country, up to 14.3 percent of households experience food insecurity and go hungry with not enough on their shelves, each year.

That’s about 1 in 7 households in the U.S or 17.5 million homes going hungry at some point and 1 in 5 kids not getting enough to eat.

Just like the statistics from abroad, many of American children are in single family homes led by women.

But there is hope in all of this. Organizations like Nokidhungry.org are trying to change America’s reality.

Nokidhungry is providing programs like Cooking Matters to give families the chance to learn how to spend their money effectively and to stretch every dollar while still providing their family with healthy meals.

The organization is also providing breakfast for children in many schools across the country, and food for families in the summer time- a time that can be full of insecurity and hunger for kids who get meals at school during the school year, but might have to go without in July and August.

Nokidhungry has a lot of inspirational people helping out in all areas-people like Cher Coner of Detroit, who started giving hungry kids in her neighborhood snacks from her pantry, one rainy day.

How did it start? On a normal day, kids from Cher’s street gravitate to her back driveway where she has a swing set and a climber. Children come and play as they want. One rainy day children were hanging out and asked Cher for a snack.

One thing led to another and now Cher is running a food program in her area,  and changing lives one cereal bar at a time.

Is making a change hard to do? Apparently not. Nokidhungry’s website states that in many places, just $1 can provide a child with up 10 meals, so even a small donation can do a lot of good.

Child hunger is a big problem, but like any problem, it’s solvable.

Happy Thanksgiving weekend!

Photo credit: matthi/Shutterstock

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