Mother Teresa once said, "If you can't feed a hundred people, then just feed one." Kids Against Hunger has adopted this motto as the foundation of its mission: to feed starving families across the globe. It is nearly impossible to ensure that every family in the world has a sufficient amount of food to survive; however, Kids Against Hunger works to feed as many families as possible.
Currently, Kids Against Hunger in Pleasanton is focused on feeding starving children in Haiti. In this impoverished third-world country, half the children die before the age of fifteen: a staggering statistic that reflects Haiti’s scarce food supplies and malnutrition in young children.
The beauty of the food formulation is its simplicity. It is made from four readily available, dry ingredients: white long-grain rice, crushed soybeans, a blend of six vegetables, and a chicken-flavored vitamin-mineral mixture. All these ingredients are easy to package, keep for long periods, and require only twenty minutes in boiling water to prepare. Despite the simplicity of the food's content, it is a nutritionally complex and well-balanced meal. Kids Against Hunger is a non-profit organization that is dedicated to feeding families in local communities as well as worldwide. In an assembly line format, each person is assigned a specific job that is important to the completion of each food package. Each bag is packaged with love and contains six servings of nutrient-rich meals. Sherri Leal, the director of Kids Against Hunger in Pleasanton, frequently mentions how “With each bag of food we hope to fill not only their stomachs, but also their hearts.”
Richard Proudfit founded Kids Against Hunger in 1979. Since then, Kids Against Hunger has made an incredible difference helping feed families worldwide. On June 27th, 2012, Pleasanton’s Kids Against Hunger not only packaged 100,000 bags of food for the local Regional Disaster Recovery Center, but also celebrated the achievement of packaging over one million bags of food since the first packaging event in 2010. Sherri Leal reminisces, “It was so exciting to think that our local community cared enough to raise the funds and pack over one million meals for those less fortunate!”
It is evident that Kids Against Hunger in Pleasanton has a contagious spirit and passion for feeding kids. Kids Against Hunger holds food-packaging events that bring together our community while making a difference. It’s a great event for birthday parties, team-building events or simply to get together with friends and family. For twenty-five dollars a person, which pays to cover the cost of 100 meals, you can participate in any packaging events or even plan your own. Volunteer Brenda Black says, “Not only do you help financially by paying for the food you are packing, but you are also giving of your time and heart by doing the packing itself. It is such a small thing to do but the impact is huge. It is my privilege to volunteer at KAH and to serve those kids in Haiti.”
Through my experiences with Kids Against Hunger, I have become much more grateful for having basic necessities such as adequate food and shelter. While I take these things for granted on a daily basis, thousands of families in other countries struggle to have enough food to eat. Volunteering with Kids Against Hunger is an incredibly rewarding experience; I frequently attest to by personal belief of how “You get a deep sense of satisfaction when you know you are making a difference.”
Every five seconds, a child dies from starvation. You can make a difference: for only a quarter, you can feed a child. Visit http://www.kidsagainsthungerpleasanton.org for more information.
