Fighting Childhood Hunger One Snack At A Time

Our community was shocked when 60 Minutes aired a segment last spring on childhood homelessness and hunger. Shocked because of all of the communities across the country that are struggling, the 60 Minutes segment highlighted our hometown. As the families struggling to keep a roof over their children’s heads were followed, the buildings in the background were just minutes from where I grew up. Hunger wasn’t just a generalized problem across our country, and these were not the faces of kids from far away – this was our backyard. These were kids attending the same schools as our children; these are the kids we pass playing in the park, and these kids are hungry.

Hungry kids in the United States. Hungry kids in Florida. Hungry kids in Orlando. Hungry kids, down the street.

From the moment the growing problem was highlight nationally, local groups banded together to help feed these kids (including my mom’s club). But the problem persists and continues to grow. Just last week the Orlando Sentinel ran with this headline, “Number of homeless students in Central Florida nears 10,000 as DCF issues call to action.” It’s a problem that isn’t going away, in fact, it’s still growing. Today, Orlando is#2 in the nation’s hungriest children.

Last month, I took on the Champions for Kids Simple Service Project and donated a stocking filled with Disney Princess goodies to a local organization. This month’s Simple Service Project has teamed up with Abbott Nutrition to help feed hungry kids, and I am excited to take part by creating a kids’ snack pack. I’ve decided to donate my snack pack to The Sharing Center.

The Sharing Center assists local families with “food, toiletries, clothing, financial aid with rent/mortgage, utilities, transportation costs, medical prescriptions, and other help specific to an individual.” In addition to food donations made to The Sharing Center’s pantry, the The Sharing Center is supported by the proceeds from its thrift store. So in addition to my snack pack donation, I will also be donating a few bags of clothes for the thrift store.

Later this week I will share with you what I choose for my snack pack and more about donating it to The Sharing Center.

Learn more about how you can get involved in giving back with Champions for Kids at www.championsforkids.org. If you are on Twitter, I also invite you to participate in the Champions for Kids Twitter party on January 19 at 9:00 EST using the hash tag #AbbottCFK.

Disclosure – This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias, however, all thoughts and opinions are my own.