Food is an enabler of hope, which is the basis for Nourish Today, Flourish Tomorrow, and that's what the ConAgra Foods Foundation is all about. In the last decade, hunger relief agencies have found that the greatest increase in hungry Americans has been among the working poor. Despite their hard work, they cannot always make ends meet.
We take a comprehensive approach to fighting childhood hunger by generating awareness about the cause, working with not-for-profit partners to provide solutions, and mobilizing resources to help kids get the nourishment—food and facts—they need so that they can flourish tomorrow.
In partnership with the national office of Feeding America®, we fund Child Hunger Grants to support program needs at a local level across the food bank network, including:
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Kids Cafe, a safe-haven after-school program of Feeding America, is one of the most expansive child-feeding programs in the nation, and the ConAgra Foods Foundation has funded the startup and reinforcement grants for hundreds of Kids Cafes across the country. A partnership between a local food bank and an agency such as a Boys & Girls club, it's where kids can get adult supervision, do homework and other educational activities, engage in physical exercise, and get a balanced meal before they go home.
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The school BackPack™ program helps ensure kids have access to food throughout weekends and school vacations. Serviced as a partnership between food banks and an agency, needy children get a backpack filled with nutritious foods. This food helps to provide nutrition for times when the children might not receive food, such as weekends and school vacations. The backpacks allow for discreet transportation of the food from school to home.
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Summer Food Service Program provides support and funding for food when school is out and children don't have access to free breakfast and lunch programs. During the 2005 federal fiscal year, 17.5 million low-income children received free or reduced-price meals through the National School Lunch Program. Unfortunately, less than 2 million of these same income-eligible children participated in the Summer Food Service Program that same year.
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Distribution truck grants allow food banks to get food to those who need it most. There is enough food to feed everyone in the United States: The challenge is getting it to the people who need it most. The ConAgra Foods Foundation has purchased more than 160 trucks for food banks to deliver nutritious food. These trucks help feed America's hungry children by building the Feeding America network capacity, enabling Feeding America to quickly deliver food to food banks across the nation.
There are hundreds of programs that help children all over the country—and there is bound to be one near you. Click here to find the food bank and programs that are closest to you.
For more than 20 years, ConAgra Foods has donated millions of pounds of food to food banks across the country. This includes many of ConAgra Foods' well-known brands, such as Hunt's®, Chef Boyardee®, Healthy Choice®, Peter Pan®, Orville Redenbacher's®, Snack Pack®, and Marie Callender's®.
Nourish Today, Flourish Tomorrow supports Share Our Strength's Operation Frontline®, which brings together leading chefs and nutrition educators to teach families how to prepare nutritious meals on a budget in more than 20 cities across the country. In the next two years, the Operation Frontline program will expand to launch programs in new locations.
The ConAgra Foods Foundation also awards grants to qualified charitable organizations in three funding categories: National Strategic Partnerships, Local Partnerships, and an employee-driven grant-making process, Nourish Our Community Grants. Read our Grant Guidelines for more information.
