Hunger Impact Partners

Hunger-Free KIDS Fund

Making Minnesota Kids Food Secure

Kids should only be hungry to learn!

Update Covid-19 Pandemic Response - Now, more than ever, their needs are great. Minnesota kids need nutrition and we help local communities to provide more meals for low-income children. Hunger Impact Partners created a mobile app -- Free Meals for Kids -- to help families and kids access free meals across the state that largely school districts and other community organizations are providing. With your support, we can make sure we are continuing to meet our children's hunger need through this challenging time. Our local efforts increase capacity to serve more meals, target racially diverse communities and low-income neighborhoods.

Profile - Together, let's change the trajectory of hunger-relief for Minnesota's children living in urban, suburban and rural economic hardship. Hunger Impact Partners is laser-focused on high impact child nutrition strategies for school breakfast, after schools meals, infant and child nutrition programs, and summer feeding programs. Supporting a strong network of statewide school and  community-based initiatives, we partner to close the meal gap for hungry kids because we know who they are, where they are and how to connect them with meals.  Working with community organizations, school districts, parents, clinics and licensed child care centers, we tailor solutions to make sure these kids get access to nutritious meals where they live. Nutrition fuels learning and without it we won't see Minnesota's children realize their full potential. We can't do this without your help.  

Hungry infants and young children:

• experience delayed development, poorer attachment and learning difficulties in the first two years of life. 
• are more likely to require hospitalization.  
• are at higher risk for chronic health conditions, such as anemia and asthma.  
• have more frequent instances of oral health problems.

Hungry school-age children:

• are twice as likely to repeat a grade and more likely to have lower math and reading scores.  
• are three times more likely to be suspended from school and often absent from or late to school.  
• show a heightened propensity for having isolating or anti-social behaviors and a greater need for special education.

This is a problem we can solve.  Let's step up and make feeding food insecure kids a priority. Together we can remove barriers, address stigma and improve access to nutritious food for every disadvantaged Minnesota child so we don't lose another generation to the consequences of hunger.

The Free Meals for Kids mobile app, is free at the Apple Store and the Google Play Store. Powered by GPS, it shows locations of summer food sites, days and hours of operation. Kids up to age 18 can show up without prior signup and eat free meals at open site locations, including park and recreation sites, community centers, libraries and schools. The app shows the distance and directions to the nearest sites. Help us get the word out so kids can get the proper nutrition and return to school ready to learn.