With 151,000 children in our region at risk of hunger every day, we have developed several key initiatives to help “feed kids.”
Kids Cafe
Second Harvest partners with agencies that already serve children at risk of hunger to help provide nutritious meals and snacks at their sites. The Kids Cafe Program provides free meals, snacks and nutrition education to at-risk children during the school year and summer months. We currently serve thousands of children daily throughout our region who might otherwise go hungry.
For more information or to donate to this program, email Jess Hudson, Child & Senior Programs Manager at jhudson@secondharvestmetrolina.org or call her at 704-805-1743.
Backpack Program
The Backpack Program provides a backpack full of nutritious, ready to eat or easy to prepare foods that is sent home on weekends and holidays when school meals are not available. The Second Harvest Backpack Program provides over 520,000 backpacks annually in 23 counties that the Food Bank serves.
For more information or to donate to this program, email Jess Hudson, Child & Senior Programs Manager at jhudson@secondharvestmetrolina.org or call her at 704-805-1743.
School-Based Mobile Pantry
This program is designed to supplement our Backpack Program at higher poverty elementary schools in our region. To help ensure that our children have enough nutritious food to eat and come to school prepared to learn, this program provides on-site food shopping for low-income families. Each pantry provides staple goods, fresh produce, meat, eggs, whole grain breads, milk, and essential non-food items like toilet paper and diapers, on average providing 40 to 50 pounds of food per family.
This past fiscal year, 592 mobile pantries were held delivering 9 million pounds of food.
For more information or to donate to this program, email Jess Hudson, Child & Senior Programs Manager at jhudson@secondharvestmetrolina.org or call her at 704-805-1743.