Texas Nonprofit Gets Grant To Extend Children Nutrition Programs To Rural Areas

One of the most important things is ensuring that our children are safe and stable during this pandemic. Part of this includes making certain that they have enough food to eat. Food insecurity is a serious issue in the United States, and sadly the pandemic has only exacerbated the problem. Food insecurity among children in the state of Texas was already high previous to the pandemic. Nearly 1 in four children in Texas had experienced food insecurity at some point in 2019. That equals 1.6 million children! And those numbers have only increased under COVID. That’s why a Texas Nonprofit focused on childhood nutrition programs is looking to alleviate child hunger in rural areas.

(GrantWatch lists similar grants that aim to end childhood hunger like this one for USA nonprofits.)

Children Nutrition & Hunger Mitigation Is The Focus Of This Program

The organization, No Kid Hungry Texas, has partnered with Texas Rural Education Association to address hunger in rural districts. Five districts will be awarded grants of $30,000. The goal of this program is to address the challenges that come with providing adequate nutrition to rural students. One such district in Navasota currently has issues ensuring that students get proper nutrition. This is because of the proximity of the high school to fast food restaurants.

Here’s what the Director of Child Nutrition at Navasota ISD had to say about why student breakfast numbers are not high enough in her district: “The high school is next to various fast food restaurants so there is a lot of competition,” explained Franklin. “We want to focus on getting students a nutritious breakfast before starting their school day.”

This new program is being used at a pilot program in Navasota, and the school district does serve free breakfast. But partners on this program hope adding a coffee and smoothie bar will encourage students to eat a healthy breakfast. Franklin also hopes when students pick up a free coffee, they will also choose to take food as well.

GrantWatch Understands That School Food Programs Are Important:

We hope that more programs like this will be instituted to mitigate childhood hunger and offer healthier options. These types of programs can help to benefit entire communities by ensuring children and young adults are fed. And school nutrition programs lead to lower rates of obesity, food insecurity and improve health outcomes. We have a category on Education on GrantWatch for our subscribers to locate other grants to benefit students.

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