FCC launching outreach to feed hungry children in Chattanooga

Fighting child hunger!

As part of our AUDACITY 2012 campaign, FCC is launching a Snack Pack program for Chattanooga inner-city children that will serve students from low-income families who largely depend on school lunches as their primary source of food and are most likely to go home on the weekends to an empty pantry.

School children are able to receive lunches through the Free or Reduced Lunch Program, providing them with nutritious meals on school days. However, many of these children have little or no nutritious food at home to eat during the weekends.

This program will provide nutritious food items that can easily be prepared by children when they are home alone, such as juice boxes, applesauce, raisin packs, granola bars, Easy Mac, boxes of cold cereal, peanut butter crackers, fruit snacks, oatmeal, and more.

Snack Packs will contain enough food for the weekend and will be distributed to the children afterschool on Fridays and on special holidays. Each week, a different “virtue” card will be included that reminds kids of a specific theme, such as loving your neighbor, being kind to one another, or respecting others.

According to USDA statistics, 21% of Tennessee children live in poverty – 20% are in households that experience “food insecurity.”  During their early years, children need nutritious food to develop – both physically and mentally. Research also shows that hungry children have poorer mental and overall health, miss more days of school, suffer greater rates of behavioral disorders and are less prepared to learn when they are in school.