August 4, 2009

Children are Hungry Too

Kierston, a 12-year-old girl who visits a food bank says, “I would like more food...at the end of the month we don’t eat because we ran out.” A little boy who attends a nearby elementary school in Snohomish County echoes her feelings and says, “We don’t have enough food either.” All too often during the summer months our member food banks and meal programs hear comments like these from young children who are unable to provide for themselves. When school is out, lunch and sometimes breakfast, are difficult to come by without the help of the school meal programs these children depend on.

In the United States, 12.6 million children are hungry or at risk of hunger. With your help, Food Lifeline is able to serve more than 224,000 hungry children in Western Washington each year, and your continued support allows us to ensure these little ones have the food they need to grow strong and thrive. According to the USDA, in 2007, 18 percent of children under the age of five were food insecure--meaning they have lack of access at all times to adequate amounts of nutritious food. At Food Lifeline we want to make sure there is always access to adequate amounts of wholesome, nutrition-packed food, and we are working hard to keep hungry children and their families fed.