No Child Goes Hungry (NCGH), a non-profit providing grant money and mentorship to community organizations that build hunger advocacy programs, has made a $1,000 donation to the Syracuse City School District’s Blessings in a Backpack program. The donation is being directed to Dr. King Elementary School where it will be used to provide ten children with food over the weekend for an entire school year. The Blessings in a Backpack program offers a means to provide food for children within the City of Syracuse who are in food insecure households.
One in five children in America face food insecurity,” said Rachel Murphy, Syracuse City School District Director of Food & Nutrition Services. “In our district, over 80 percent of students qualify for free or reduced lunch. This staggering number allows all our students to be provided free breakfast, lunch, and snacks during the school week, but for those who are food insecure, they often lack such reliable nutrition on the weekends. The Blessings in a Backpack program helps fill that gap, and thanks to No Child Goes Hungry’s generous donation, we will now be able to support ten additional children throughout the school year who might otherwise go hungry on weekends.”
The hunger-relief organization, Feeding America, says 13.1 million children lived in food-insecure households in 2015, and a report by the USDA Economic Research Service shows that in 2014, 48.1 million Americans lived in food-insecure households, including 15.3 million children. Homes with children reported food insecurity at a significantly higher rate than those without children.
It’s crazy, isn’t it, that any child ever goes to bed hungry,” said Kären Rasumussen, No Child Goes Hungry Director. “In our schools, on our playgrounds, and right in our very own neighborhoods, kids go hungry every day. No Child Goes Hungry works with communities to feed kids—one kid, one meal at a time. We are pleased to support the efforts of the Syracuse City School District to help feed kids who struggle every day to have enough to eat. We are so happy to be able to help support this important program that helps so many in the City of Syracuse.”
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