Awareness :: Bake Sale for No Kid Hungry

Last year I did research for a post I wrote for a community website about the hungry in America. I was absolutely shocked at the number of children in the states who go to bed hungry. In the state of California, the Childhood Food Insecurity Rate is at 26.8% which equates to 2,453,770 children. These numbers just break my heart and I make it a point to drop off canned goods at our local food bank with my daughter as often as I can.

Recently, I came across an organization that is helping to end childhood hunger and I wanted to share this with you to see if you and your kids would like to get involved! I would like to have this be part of the dandelion moms project kindness for May but wanted to post about the event prior in case you need some time to organize a bake sale at your school or neighborhood. Following is some information about Share Our Strength Bake Sale and how you can help.

Share Our Strength Helps End Childhood Hunger:

Share Our Strength, the nation’s leading nonprofit working to end childhood hunger is celebrating their 10^th anniversary of its Bake Sale for No Kid Hungry. Individuals and groups are encouraged to sign up to host bake sales in their local communities and the goal this year is to raise $600,000 – which can help connect kids in need with up to 6 million meals.

Baking An Impact

Funds raised by nationwide Bake Sales for No Kid Hungry support Share Our Strength’s No Kid Hungry campaign, which is ending childhood hunger in this nation by ensuring all children get the healthy food they need, every day. By connecting kids in need with nutritious food and teaching their families how to cook healthy, affordable meals, the No Kid Hungry campaign surrounds children with healthy food where they live, learn and play.

Share Our Strength’s focus is on long-term change – the difference between just feeding a child today and making sure that children in the United States never go hungry. Since 1984, Share Our Strength has raised and invested more than $376 million in the fight against hunger —including more than $9.6 million through Bake Sale for No Kid Hungry.

How Your Can Help:

As part of this initiative, Bake Sale for No Kid Hungry is enlisting bloggers for the fourth annual National Food Blogger Bake Sale. The virtual-meets-reality event, will be held on Saturday, May 4 and will unite food bloggers from across the country to host bake sales in their communities and encourage their followers to host their own virtual bake sales!

To get some ideas on how to do a Bake Sale just go to the Share Our Strength’s website where they can offer some tips on how to host a bake sale in your area: https://join.strength.org/site/PageServer?pagename=GABS_getinvolved_participants

One of their ideas is to ask your local bakery to provide some cupcakes, muffins, cookies, etc., to use in the Bake Sale. You could ask your children’s school or church if you could have a table out front at drop-off and sell these baked goods! Good luck and keep us posted!

The following comes from the Share Our Strength website:

The Hungry in America:

More than 16 million children – that’s one in five – struggles with hunger in the United States. Nearly half of all people who use the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP or food stamps) are kids. Hunger prevents kids from reaching their full potential and it’s a problem that’s affecting America’s future. 21 million U.S. kids receive a free or reduced-price school lunch, but only half of those kids also get breakfast, even though they’re eligible. And only 1 in 7 kids who get free and reduced-price school lunches also receive summer meals. Hunger has a huge effect on how a child performs at school. In fact, 9 out of 10 teachers say having a healthy breakfast is key to academic achievement.

Hunger Affects School Performance:

Children who struggle with hunger don’t do as well in school. Instead of coming to class ready to learn, a hungry child is focused on her empty stomach. Kids who don’t start their day with a nutritious breakfast are more likely to be sick and miss class than their peers, which prevents them from excelling academically. A hungry child is less likely to graduate from high school and go on to college, which has a negative impact on her economic future. If this happens, then twenty years from now, she’s much less likely to be able to earn enough to feed her family.