This story caught my eye this morning because I thought it was the other Hillary — but getting my Clinton confused with my Duff led me to this great charity: Blessings in a Backpack [1].
It makes so much sense — there are 16.3 million kids [2] getting free or reduced price lunches through the National School Lunch Program — so who feeds those kids on the weekend? The Blessings program packs backpacks with nonperishable food and passes them out at the end of the week to keep kids going until school rolls around on Monday. Food charity programs like this and Meals on Wheels [3] fulfill a need especially poignant when economic times get tough.
Hilary Duff was in Fort Wayne, IN, to publicize the program. She said [4]:
I feel lucky enough to have a voice or a name that people might pay attention to. I think that people might not be aware that a couple neighborhoods away, kids aren't having food on the weekends, and we just want people to be informed and to know what's going on in their communities and to help if they can.
To see why the need is so great, and how you can help, .
Here are some surprising stats on food stamp benefits that signal a need for more help:
- A household is ineligible for the Food Stamp Program if it has more than $2,000 in savings or other assets.
- The USDA calculated that there were 12.4 million children that were at hungry or at risk in 2005, the year the program started.
- The average per-person food stamp benefit is .93 a meal.
If you want to help the Blessings in a Backpack program, there are lots of ways to donate [5] time, money, and resources.
Source [6]