FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Melanie Ryan
Director, Communications & Marketing
Children’s Hunger Alliance
614-643-8051
mryan@childrenshungealliance.org
Children’s Hunger Alliance (CHA) hosted their annual luncheon, Menu of Hope, on March 1, 2023, and raised over $500,000 to help provide meals to Ohio’s hungry children. The theme of the event was how the power of one person can make a difference in the lives of many in our community.
The featured keynote speaker Lauren Bush Lauren, the Founder and Chairman of FEED, also discussed how seeing hunger first-hand led her to create a social business dedicated to feeding hungry children. Her life experiences influenced her decision to get involved and make a difference to help those in need. She also touched on how supporting and advocating for meal programs have such a major impact on improving the lives of children.
An example of how the power of one affected Ohio’s children directly, was the expansion of the Adopt-a-School program from one location to six locations in just a year. Knowing that children struggle with hunger outside of school hours, CHA launched the Adopt-a-School program two years ago, with financial assistance from The Champion Companies. This program provides weekend meal boxes to children living in areas experiencing high food insecurity. At last year’s Menu of Hope, Judy Mobley, President and CEO of Children’s Hunger Alliance, challenged those in attendance to join CHA in reaching more children in Ohio with meals through this program. In less than a year, five more companies have committed to providing weekend meal boxes to six schools throughout Ohio.
American Electric Power and The American Electric Power Foundation have been strong supporters of Children’s Hunger Alliance for several decades, and were honored with the inaugural Community Impact Award. They have not only been the presenting sponsor of the Menu of Hope luncheon for many years, but also the first funder to make a multi-year gift to support CHA’s programmatic work. They are another example of how one organization’s commitment to helping those in need can make such a major impact on so many children.
Also honored at Menu of Hope, were the 2022 Program of the Year recipients:
- Childcare Center Program of the Year – Rodriguez Childcare Center – Columbus
- Rodriguez Childcare Center has been a CHA partner for three years. They serve “home style” meals
- In-Home Childcare Provider of the Year – Sherri Congrove – Circleville
- Sherri Congrove goes above and beyond for her families. She makes many dishes from scratch, so the kids get balanced, nutritious meals and snacks.
- Afterschool Program of the Year – Columbus Metropolitan Library – Columbus
- Columbus Metropolitan Library provide meals each day at 15 branch libraries in conjunction with their Homework Help Centers. Last school year, they provided nearly 80,000 meals.
- Summer Program of the Year – Perry County District Library – New Lexington
- Perry County District Library is committed to providing food access for all their branches. The library received funding to purchase meals and CHA was able to donate meals in situations where they fell slightly under the requirements for the federal program.
- Weekend Meals Program of the Year – Mansfield City Schools – Mansfield
- Mansfield City Schools joined the CHA Weekend Meals Program last year, they provided 2,400 weekend meals every week to students at two elementary schools.
- School Breakfast Program of the Year – Northwood Local Schools – Northwood
- Northwood Local Schools wants to make sure that no student begins their day hungry. With a No Kid Hungry grant, facilitated by CHA, they started a breakfast in the classroom program allowing all students to start their day ready to learn.
Presenting patrons of Menu of Hope were The American Electric Power Foundation, and The Champion Companies. Other major patrons were ABC 6/ FOX 28, Kroger, Huntington Bank, Battelle, Bob Evens Farms, Hexion, LeadingEDJE LLC, Nationwide Insurance Foundation, Rockbridge – Jackie & Ken Krebs, The Robert Weiler Company, and US Bank.
Over 400,000 children in Ohio are struggling with hunger and do not know when they will have their next meal. CHA partners with over 1,400 organizations throughout the state to provide millions of meals annually to at-risk children. Funds raised through events like Menu of Hope, support the programs that provide access to food for children and help them live a healthy life.
About Children’s Hunger Alliance
Founded in 1970, Children’s Hunger Alliance is a statewide nonprofit organization dedicated to ending childhood hunger in Ohio. Through their work, Children’s Hunger Alliance provides healthy meals to hungry children, advocates for the welfare of Ohio’s youngest citizens and teaches nutrition and physical education to those they serve.
www.childrenshungeralliance.org
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