Every Kid. Healthy Food. Every Day. Here's What Your Dollars Can Do to Help No Kid Hungry Make This Possible.

“$1 can provide up to 10 meals for hungry kids.”

That’s a statement you’ll often see from the No Kid Hungry campaign, and I’m frequently asked how we make such an incredible return on each dollar.

We don’t get a bulk discount on food, as most folks guess. In fact, we don’t even buy food. Instead, our approach is all about finding sustainable, permanent solutions to ending childhood hunger in America.

We work with communities across the country to improve and expand existing programs that feed kids school breakfast, afterschool suppers and snacks, and summer meals to ensure all kids have access to three healthy meals a day.

Sometimes our work is complex and there are large barriers, like state laws that mandate the time of day breakfast is served at schools. But sometimes the problem is as simple as schools not having carts to carry meals through the halls to kids.

That’s where you come in.

When we carefully invest donor dollars in these programs, they can reach a lot more kids. And our strategic investments come with constant evaluation to ensure we’re maximizing these gifts.

As a result, we know that your support can return 10 meals for every $1 spent. It’s not a rule – dollars go further in some communities than in others. Depending on the community and its needs, one donated dollar can yield below or well beyond 10 additional meals served. Our promise to you is that we invest every dollar carefully, trying to get the maximum return on that investment.

Here are just a few examples of what that looks like:

• In 2018, we worked closely with a school district in Illinois to serve breakfast after the bell, as a part of the regular school day. Through our efforts and the funds we granted, a lot more students started their day fueled up and ready to reach their full potential. In fact, the district served an additional 79,500 breakfasts that year. That works out to 20 meals per dollar we invested on behalf of our donors.
• We paired our expert insights with a grant to help a district in Texas start serving afterschool meals. They served an incredible 178,000 additional meals in 2018, sending students home with the nutrients needed to tackle homework and extracurriculars. One donated dollar provided nearly 36 meals for hungry kids in that case – meals those kids might not have received at home otherwise.
• We teamed up with a community group in Arkansas that same year to offer free summer meals in low-income neighborhoods and make sure families knew about them. That summer, the group served more than 65,000 meals to hungry kids, making our investment add up to about 10 meals for every dollar spent.

That's how we turn one dollar into ten (and sometimes more!) meals for kids: working with effective local organizations and investing in proven programs.

We've made enormous progress these last few years, thanks to the support of donors just like you. Together, dollar by dollar and meal by meal, we're ending childhood hunger in this country for good.

What could be a better investment?

Support No Kid Hungry through your employee giving program:

As a donor, you can support No Kid Hungry by donating to them through your employer’s workplace giving program (CFC#11158 if you're a military or federal employee participating in the Combined Federal Campaign). Payroll pledges made through employer-sponsored charitable giving programs represent a cost effective and near effortless way to support your favorite charities.

As No Kid Hungry's workplace giving partner, America’s Charities can help your company design and implement a program centered on supporting their work - through workplace giving campaigns, employee fundraising, cause-focused signature programs, volunteerism, donation drives, matching gifts, Dollars-for-Doers, In-Kind Giving and other employee engagement and philanthropic initiatives. Click here to request a demo and learn how we can help you do this.