This November, Hunger Fight, a 501(c)3 nonprofit agency, will celebrate 14 years of providing meals for children in Northeast Florida experiencing food insecurity. In 2012, founder Sherri Porter and her team began producing and distributing shelf-stable, flavorful and nutritious meals to combat childhood hunger. Hunger Fight has grown significantly over the years and has packaged more than 39 million meals to date.
Their two programs, Feed the Backpacks and Feed the Need to Read, address the issues of hunger and illiteracy, which impact the success of school-aged children the most. Nearly one in four children experience food insecurity and live with hunger over the weekend.
Feed the Backpacks provides four-serving, packaged meals for weekend nutrition for children enrolled in the federal Free and Reduced Meal Plan at school.
Each month, children are gifted age-appropriate books to build their own library through the Feed the Need to Read Program. The goal is to help preschool-aged children prepare for kindergarten and build the strong literacy skills they need to succeed in school and beyond. The Feed the Need to Read Program began six years ago and has gifted 900,000 books to title 1 elementary students so far.
Hunger Fight hosts meal packing events known fondly as “two hours of controlled chaos,” said Porter. These events are excellent opportunities for businesses, churches and communities to foster team building. The 14th Annual Thanksgiving Community Outreach will take place during the first week of November, bringing the community together for one purpose: to make a meaningful difference in the lives of underserved children across Florida’s First Coast.
In August, Hunger Fight held their Inaugural Bed Race Fundraiser in Jacksonville. Eight teams helped raise more than $30,000 to further Hunger Fight’s mission. Each team brought a lot of fun and creativity to the fundraiser, from homemade race beds to chicken costumes. The fundraiser was such a hit that there are already plans for the next Bed Race Fundraiser on Oct. 23, 2027.
To help Hunger Fight continue their mission of eradicating childhood hunger and illiteracy, go to https://hungerfight.org.
