Spending years in the classroom as an elementary teacher, I saw first hand how many kids rely on their schools for access to food. When school lets out for the summer, they are faced with the challenge of not having that safety net to make sure they are receiving regular meals and access to food. I’m thrilled to be partnering with Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin to bring attention to the work they are doing to make sure that kids everywhere still have regular access to food, even when school is not in session.
For far too many kids, food insecurity is a day to day reality. Recent numbers indicate that as many as one in five of today’s students don’t know where their next meal will come from. During the school year, the gaps are often filled at school when they receive meals before, during and/or after classes. School districts do a great job of making families aware of these resources and facilitating easy access to them. Often, it is just a case of filling out a few forms and the district does the rest of the work. Once school is out for the summer, many parents don’t have any idea of where to even look for a similar program to fill that void.
The Healthy Kids Healthy Summer website is the perfect place to start. It was built as a hub full of information for families to help connect them to resources include those that Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin provides. There you will find:
- Calendar of Mobile Pantries hosted by Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin
- Listing of summer pantries and meal sites supported by Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin
- A map of farmers markets that accept FoodShare
- A form to request assistance applying for FoodShare
Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin is excited to announce that Green Bay running back AJ Dillon is putting his well-known name behind the effort to help Meijer’s Healthy Kids Healthy Summer program.
“The community in Wisconsin has accepted, and cheered for, me and my family since day one, and I
want to do everything I can to make a positive impact,” said AJ Dillon. “I’m happy to team up with
Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin for our Healthy Kids Healthy Summer campaign and help provide
one million meals for kids all across our state.”
How can you help make sure kids are fed this summer?
A donation of just $1 provides four meals! Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin and Dillon have set a goal of raising enough money to provide one million meals to feed local children this summer. (Yes, that’s $1,000,000!!) You may have already seen Dillon in a series of commercials and digital ads to promote the program. You can make a contribution at HealthyKidsHealthySummer.org or text “AJ” to 91999. This campaign is also presented in partnership with Associated Bank, Delta Dental of Wisconsin, Hydrite, Mott’s, and Nuna Baby so huge thanks to those companies as well!
More about Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin:
Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin is the leading hunger relief organization in the state with
locations in Milwaukee and the Fox Valley. Founded in 1982 by the Rotary Club of Milwaukee,
Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin is a local and independent member of the Feeding America
network. Driven by our mission to solve hunger and our vision of a hunger free Wisconsin, we are
bringing more people together around the table to collaboratively address the root causes of hunger.
Together with our 400+ member organizations, we serve nearly 500,000 people across 35 counties in
eastern Wisconsin each year, including 124,000 children and 41,000 seniors.
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