Food2Kids
Turning the Tables on Childhood Hunger

Caring for our children today helps ensure bright futures for them and stronger communities for us all. In collaboration with our network of emergency assistance partner agencies like soup kitchens and emergency food pantries, Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwest NC helps to provide Food2Kids in need across Northwest NC. In fact, more than one-third of those served by Second Harvest Food Bank emergency assistance program partners are children. We also collaborate with our partner agencies to provide Food2Kids through two special programs designed to “turn the tables on childhood hunger” in rural and urban communities: the BackPack Program and Kids Cafes, both national initiatives of America’s Second Harvest — The Nation’s Food Bank Network that feed hungry children locally.

Turning the Tables on Childhood Hunger
Across Northwest NC nearly 81,500 children across Northwest NC live in poverty and are at risk of hunger. Nationwide, over 14 million children face hunger everyday. When basic nutritional needs go unmet, a child's abilities and potential are diminished and communities as a whole suffer. Caring for our children today helps ensure bright futures for them and stronger communities for us all.

Through America’s Second Harvest initiatives like Kids Cafes and The Backpack Program, Second Harvest Food Bank and its program partners are addressing childhood hunger and helping families to stretch limited incomes.

Kids Cafes
Kids Cafes provide youth at risk of hunger with an evening meal, tutoring and enrichment activities three nights a week throughout the year in a safe and nurturing environment.

Program sites are made possible through community partnerships with pre-exisiting after school programs or other interested community and faith-based partners. Community partners provide a location, volunteers, and coordinate the day-to-day operations of the programs, with program oversight provided by our Agency Outreach Coordinator, Nikki Cook (ncook@secondharvest.org).

Second Harvest Food Bank provides cook salaries, staff support, technical assistance, volunteer recruitment support, and food for each Kids Cafe site with support from generous financial supporters like Food Lion, Harris Teeter, High Point Community Foundation, Kate B. Reynolds Poor and Needy Trust, United Way of Forsyth County, Winston-Salem Foundation and Que Pasa. In addition, a portion of proceeds from Empty Bowls, our signature annual fundraiser presented by Texas Pete Sauces, supports the program. Expenses are kept to a minimum through use of the Second Harvest Food Bank’s food distribution program. , as well as its Second Helpings program, which rescues surplus, prepared foods from restaurants, corporate dining rooms, food service organizations and caterers.

You can make a difference in the life of a child. We invite you to support Kids Cafes with your time – serving meals or tutoring youth, with your donations of supplies or with your financial donation.

Kids Cafe Program Partners

In Forsyth County—

• Cleveland Avenue Homes Community Center and North Winston Baptist Church
• Green Street United Methodist Church and the YMCA/Community Outreach Services Hispanic Achievers Program
• Parkway United Church of Christ and St. Paul’s Episcopal Church
• Piedmont Park Community Center and North Winston Baptist Church
• The Salvation Army Boys and Girls Club at Martin Luther King Jr. Drive
• The Salvation Army International Corps Boys and Girls Club on New Walkertown Road
• Main Street United Methodist and First Baptist Church

In Guilford County—

• Rankin Memorial United Methodist Church and West End Ministries
• Ward Street United Methodist Church and Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater High Point
  

For more information, contact Nikki Cook at ncook@secondharvest.org.


The BackPack Program
The BackPack Program aims to address childhood hunger in rural communities by providing elementary school children at risk of hunger with backpacks full of nutritious, child-friendly foods to take home over the weekends during the school year.

Participating schools have 50% or more of students receiving free or reduced price school meals. Each program distributes a maximum of 50 backpacks per week. Partner agencies pick up donated food from Second Harvest Food Bank and recruit and coordinate volunteers to fill the backpacks for delivery to selected schools each Friday. School teachers and administrators determine which children will participate. Parental consent is required for each child, and student names are kept confidentially at the school.

Lowes Foods has provided support for seven pilot program sites. Second Harvest Food Bank provides backpacks, food, and oversight of the program by our Agency Outreach Coordinator, Nikki Cook at ncook@secondharvest.org. Day-to-day coordination is handled by partner agencies of Second Harvest Food Bank and the schools to which they are matched.

BackPack Program Partners
Lowes Foods has provided funding for seven pilot BackPack Program sites. Each is supported by the Second Harvest Food Bank in collaboration with the following partners:

• Alexander County — Taylorsville Rotary Club with Taylorsville Elementary School
• Alleghany County — Alleghany County Ministerium with Sparta School
• Ashe County — Ashe Outreach Ministries with Blue Ridge Elementary School
• Davidson County — Fairgrove Family Resource Center with Briarcreek Elementary School
• Davidson County — Communities in Schools and the West Davidson Ministers Association with Churchland Elementary
• Iredell County — First Baptist Church of Statesville with Third Creek Elementary School
• Rockingham County — Reidsville Outreach Center with Williamsburg Elementary School
• Stokes County — King Outreach Ministry with Nancy Reynolds Elementary School
• Surry County — SEAMS Ministries with Westfield Elementary School

Read more about Second Harvest Food Bank's work to alleviate childhood hunger.