Hunger Solutions Minnesota and Senator Al Franken announced a new $1 million grant opportunity for Minnesota food shelves to create new nutrition programs that focus on children living at or below 200 percent of the poverty level. The program will reach an estimated 400,000 children across the state.
The opportunity was made possible by a grant from Open Your Heart to the Hungry and Homeless, which Hunger Solutions leveraged to be eligible for federal emergency funding from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program. This new Emergency Fund, established by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, helps states serve more families seeking assistance during the economic downturn.
“We are delighted that Hunger Solutions could gain additional resources to fight hunger this summer as a result of our grant,” said Yoji Shimizu, president of Open Your Heart to the Hungry and Homeless. “This initiative will greatly help school-aged children get nutritious meals daily throughout the summer.”
One in 3 Minnesota school-age children rely on free or reduced-price school food for 2/3 of their calories. Summer means no school and low quality meals for these students. At the same time, food shelf donations are at their lowest during the summer months, making it very difficult to provide enough food for all of the children in need. Hunger Solutions and Open Your Heart hope to bridge the summertime hunger-gap this year with this new funding.
Hunger Solutions will administer these funds and has created a grant application process for food shelves to obtain funding. To be eligible, food shelves must currently distribute TEFAP product (USDA commodities) in Minnesota and serve families with children. Grants will range from $5,000 up to $50,000 per food shelf and can be used for food, personnel costs, outreach materials, and/or costs associated with new activities that will increase service during the grant period. Grants will run from July 1 through September 30, 2010.
Hunger Solutions and Sen. Franken held a press conference Thursday at the PRISM food shelf in Golden Valley to announce the new opportunity. Visit Hunger Solutions’ website to learn more about the summer initiative and about child hunger in the state of Minnesota.
On behalf of everyone at Open Your Heart, Hunger Solutions, and the thousands of children who will now have good, healthy food all summer, thank you to our donors for making this initiative possible!
