Kids Against Hunger- Suggestion Six!

Phew! We're into week two of this money-saving madness (I ate my "meal out" this week this morning at breakfast with a bunch of folks from my church). So far, we're doing pretty well on the voting- Preemptive Love is ahead with 29 votes, Relationship Bridges International has 11 votes, World Neighbors has 10 and Citizen Effect and Feeding America both have 1. I thought I'd re-cap on the whole contest idea again.

I gave up eating out for a week- saving me $100. I'm only eating 1 meal out for the next 2 weeks- which means $80 each week. So, I'm pledging $260 (and am on the hunt for someone to match me 1-for-1!) to the organization that my readers choose! You suggested a handful to me last week- and I pledged to write a blog on each organization. When you comment on that blog you vote (1 vote per person per day)! Pretty simple right? If you like the organization, vote. Just "commenting" is a way for you to contribute to that organization's efforts.  So- start voting!

Thanks to a dear past teacher and friend, I discovered Kids Against Hunger.  She suggested it because a team of people in the Connecticut area team together pretty often (I think weekly?) to put together bagged lunches for kids in their community who are dealing with malnutrition.  Here's a brief bit about the organization:

The organization’s approach to achieving its goal - the eradication of world hunger - includes the packaging of a highly nutritious, vitamin-fortified soy-rice casserole by volunteers at numerous locations within the USA and Canada, and the distribution of those meals to starving children and their families in over 60 countries through partnerships with humanitarian organizations worldwide. In 2009 alone, volunteers at Kids Against Hunger’s food packaging centers across the USA packaged over 48 million meals for children and their families around the world and around the corner.

The Kids Against Hunger food packaging network consists of the organization’s International Headquarters office located in New Hope, MN (a suburb of Minneapolis), a Division in Mankato, MN, and about 80 independent non-profit food packaging "satellites" across the U.S. and Canada.

Think about it- your family in Whereeveryouareville, Texas can put together food packages for kids all around the world.  A very close family friend, Keith and his boys Richard and Mark just participated in an event in Connecticut. I spoke to Jill- the boys' mom- and she mentioned the powerful experience it was for her boys.

And here's something shocking about their financials.

COST OF THE MEALS:

The average program cost to produce each Kids Against Hunger meal is $0.23.

Each bag of food (390 grams) includes six one-cup servings.

Each 32 lb. box of food holds 36 bags of food. That is the equivalent of 216 meals at a program cost of only $50. Each 40 ft. container load of food includes 285,120 meals or 40 pallets of food at a program cost of approx. $65,000. 

Kids Against Hunger purchases the ingredients for its meals at very competitive prices through longstanding relationships with reliable suppliers. The necessary funds are raised through donations from individuals, corporations, churches, and other organizations. 

 $.23. So that means, if these guys win, we would be providing over 1,000 meals for kids who need it. So what do you think folks? Should they win the cash?

Cheers,

ACW