Child hunger. It’s a plague in our nation that tugs at even the most hardened of heart strings. Across America, as a result of COVID-19, it is projected that 13 million children will have experienced food insecurity in the last year. (Feeding America 2021). Closer to home, in North Carolina, one in five children faces hunger. That’s 419,470 children in our communities who don’t know where their next meal will come from. Thankfully, Inter-Faith Food Shuttle has supporters who have taken the cause of child hunger to heart and have made a commitment to change this sad reality. Tom Russell Charitable Foundation is one such supporter, having made a recent $100,000 gift to the Food Shuttle to address child hunger head on, through targeted programming and focused partnerships.
The Tom Russell Charitable Foundation’s mission is “to help people to help themselves.” The Foundation’s generous funding over the last 22 years has enabled the Food Shuttle to help our young neighbors in central North Carolina by providing immediate hunger relief through programs like BackPack Buddies and School Pantries. Their dedication goes beyond putting food on the table, however; and extends to long-term, sustainable solutions like education initiatives, such as school gardens and nutrition education programming. These efforts help end the cycle of hunger by teaching children about nutrition and budgeting and growing their own foods.
The value of partnerships such as that of the Tom Russell Charitable Foundation cannot be overstated. This support enables the Food Shuttle to evolve to meet the needs of the neighbors we serve in a continuing, developing manner—to support people on their path to food security.