WFMY Food2Families and WMAG are teaming up for a Stock the Shelves for Summer Food and Funds Drive
A community wide effort to provide support for local children and families in need by supporting Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwest NC and it local partners.
• More than 100 grocery assistance programs serving Guilford County and hundreds of others across 17 Northwest North Carolina counties rely on Second Harvest for the majority of the food they provide to families.
• During the summer months, when school is out of session, many of Second Harvest’s partner food assistance programs will start seeing more and more families coming in as added expenses like childcare costs add up and stretch household resources thin.
• Through efforts like this one, Second Harvest aims to help stock the shelves of it local partners to help make sure that every child...and every family...has the food they need every day to stay productive and healthy.
The Summer Meal Gap
• More than 60 percent of children attending our public schools are eligible to receive meals at school at no or low cost because family resources are limited.
• However, for the vast majority of these children, this nutritional support disappears during the summer months, leaving them at risk of going without enough to eat.
• In fact, just over 10 percent of eligible children access meals through summer meals sites. That means 90 percent of these kids are not receiving this help.
• Second Harvest’s local partners...and the growing number of summer meal sites that Second Harvest and others sponsor each summer here in Guilford County and across the region... are critical resources for struggling families.
• Every child deserves to eat. Every meal. Every day. You can help!
You Can Help!
• Come out to the Food Lion on Hicone Road to make a donation of food or funds. (Every financial gift will be matched $1 for $1 by several dedicated Second Harvest supporters! $10 becomes $20 and will help Second Harvest provide up to 140 meals!
• Participate online through Second Harvest’s Virtual Food Drive. You’ll find it on the web at virtualdrive.secondharvestnwnc.org
• Text to Give, if that’s your preference by texting the words second harvest to 50155.
• Stand Up for Kids: Let your elected officials know that programs that make it possible for families to access the healthy food they need are critical and should not be cutback.
Why is this special summer drive to get healthy food to kids so important?
• Good nutrition is important for everyone, and even more so for children because their bodies and minds are still growing.
• The research is clear: When a child goes without adequate nutrition, it can lead to a lifetime of learning and developmental challenges.
• Second Harvest and its 460+ partners need the community’s support to make sure that every child has the healthy food they need every day to play hard and grow strong this summer and start back to school in the fall ready to learn.
Best Foods to Donate:
• Visit Second Harvest’s website for a list of the healthy items most needed by their local partner programs.
• Healthy, kid-friendly items, like snack size apple sauce, fruit cups, healthy cereals, and protein-packed peanut butter are just a few examples.
Find a Summer Meal Site Near You:
Here are three ways to find a nearby free summer meals site in North Carolina for children:
1. Text "FoodNC" to 877-877
2. Call toll-free 1.866.3Hungry (1.866.348.6479) or 1.877.8Hambre (1.877.842.6273)
3. Visit the USDA's Summer Meal Site Finder at fns.usda.gov/SummerFoodRocks
Note: Most site information is only available June through August. If you don't see a site near you yet, keep checking back, because information will be updated throughout the beginning of the summer.
FREE: Meals are free to children and teens ages 18 and younger who come to a summer meals site.
NO ID, NO REGISTRATION: Parents don’t need to apply to the program to get a free summer meal for their kids. Children simply need to come to a summer meals site in their community, and enjoy a healthy meal. No ID or registration needed.
On this we can all agree: Every Child Deserves to Eat. Every Meal. Every Day.
• 1 in every 5 children living in Northwest Carolina is food insecure – meaning that they lives with uncertainty over whether they will have enough to eat.
• The good news is that right now everyone can make difference in a child’s life through their gifts to Lowes Foods’ Bag Childhood Hunger campaign.
• The support Second Harvest receives from this campaign will support Second Harvest’s work to improve the lives of children and families and complement our efforts to provide additional supplies of food for the summer months to our local food assistance partners.
• 460 of these local partners spread across 18 Northwest North Carolina counties, count on Second Harvest for much of the food they provide for families. They will, we know, see an increase in requests from families through the summer months.
• This is in part because the free meals that are available to children through the school year are largely not available to families during the summer months. That means additional expenses for families, combined with others, like childcare, which many working families simply cannot absorb on their own.