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July 2006
Hunger in America 2006: The Local
Report for Long Island provided us with a detailed portrait
of hunger on Long Island. Hunger
is a widespread and growing issue, but Island Harvest is
taking steps to fight it in new ways. We have set a goal for
2006
of rescuing 7 million pounds of food (a 16% increase) and
are adding
new publications to our library of educational materials
for our agencies and their clients. We are also launching two
exciting
new programs this year, programs that we expect to have a
significant impact on children’s hunger and to help our
agencies more effectively meet the varied needs of their clients.
Kids
Alliance: Weekend Food-To-Go Program
Sadly, many children
leave school on Friday and don’t
get another nutritious meal until Monday. In the 2006-2007
school
year, we are piloting a program that will provide low-income
children and their families with extra nutritious food
every weekend. We will work with school counselors and educators
to teach them how to identify children who are at risk
of
hunger or who already know it firsthand. Then, every
week throughout
the school year, we will provide bags or packs of shelf-stable,
nutritious food for those school coordinators to distribute
discreetly.
In addition to food, the packs will include:
• Multi-lingual
information flyers to help parents find available community
resources.
• Nutrition, health and fitness tips, and other information for
parents and children.
• Fun and informational education materials.
The possibilities for this program
are tremendous. By feeding children better and removing the barrier to learning
that hunger poses, we hope to see a decrease in health
problems
and an improvement
in academic performance among participating children.
The educational materials will increase awareness among
parents
and guardians
of the resources available to low-income families in
their community, as well as of positive nutrition and
health practices. And school
personnel will have a way to take direct action to
benefit hungry children.
We are very grateful to Wal-Mart Foundation, Symbol Technologies,
Assemblyman Marc Alessi, the Energia Group, and others
for
their generous
support of the Kids Alliance – Weekend Food-To-Go
program.
Bridging the Educational Divide:
A Workshop Series for Member Agencies
Out
network includes more than 420 community-based, nonprofit
member agencies, which range from soup
kitchens and food
pantries to community residences to shelters to child
care and senior
programs. From our own outreach work with those agencies
as well as the results of Hunger in America 2006,
we have learned of
their frustration in obtaining vital information
for their clients and consumers. They have told us
that
they lack
both the resources
and the time necessary to research the details of
many important programs and services available to
them and
the people they serve.
The solution: Island Harvest
will host monthly workshops to provide technical assistance
to our network of
community-based organizations,
using a Train-the-Trainer model. These workshops
will be open to all members of our agency network
and will
cover
a variety
of topics that relate to the critical issue of
hunger, like:
• Accessing Food Stamps.
• Nutrition – making healthy choices with limited funds.
• Identifying ways to lower non-food monthly expenses.
• Important facts about safe food handling and health.
• Information on affordable housing issues.
• Health insurance programs.
Multi-lingual resource materials will be made
available for distribution to member agencies and the people
they serve.
We extend special thanks to Bethpage
Federal Credit Union, Long Island Community Foundation and
others for generously supporting this important project.
New initiatives like these
can broaden the impact Island Harvest has on the problem of
hunger on Long Island
and improve the quality
of life for tens of thousands of children
and families. We are actively seeking community
partners
to support
these programs
with funding and in-kind donations of equipment,
services and other critical elements. To
find out how your business
can help,
please contact us at 516-294-8528.
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