Kids Fighting Hunger engages the communities of Central Minnesota through education, partnerships, and volunteerism to provide temporary hunger relief.
Kids Fighting Hunger provides a unique service opportunity that brings people together to package oatmeal and rice meals.
To fulfill our mission we host, work with, and empower volunteer groups – such as schools, sports teams, churches, businesses, and student groups such as Scouts or National Honor Society. Whether packaging oatmeal and rice for area food shelves, or rice meals for humanitarian relief all who serve develop a deeper understanding of the challenges that face our friends and neighbors near and far.
The Kids Fighting Hunger program began March 1st, 2003 as Kids Against Hunger of Central Minnesota. A small locally based satellite of its parent organization, Feeding Children International. We are our own 501(c)(3) and operate independently of FCI.
Before long, the idea of fostering lifelong community stewardship in service to help other kids to combat starvation through humanitarian food relief became known and sought out by student leaders. More importantly, through their packaging efforts. volunteers learn and reaffirm the importance of looking beyond themselves and towards serving the needs of others.
Between 2003 and 2013 more than 20,000 youth and adults served 30,000 hours to package 15 million meals. Throughout that time an annual packaging event was often hosted by an area church to honor Dr. Martin Luther King’s legacy in January. Throughout that time our focus was in our roots until the United Way reached out to see how we could provide a service opportunity to impact those in Central MN experiencing food insecurity.
We Are Thankful, a community service project began in 2013. We had partnered to offer this opportunity with area churches but branched out in 2013 to invite community members to serve at the Rivers Edge Convention Center. In 2013, a macaroni and cheese option became available and was packaged and distributed to St. Cloud food shelves. In 2014, we returned to our roots based on feedback from the food shelves, and packaged 150,000 million rice meals for humanitarian food relief. Meanwhile we continued to explore how we could make a difference in Central MN.
Check out the area Food Shelf Tab for more information. Upload photos and names of the area food shelves.
The United Way provided a list of 30 area food shelves and in 2015 we hosted our first local focused community service project to benefit our friends and neighbors. Since that time 6,000 people have served 9,000 hours to package more than 1 million oatmeal and rice meals. The Sartell Boys Swim and Dive Team and Hockey team have served as set up, heavy lifter, box maker and clean-up volunteers annually. The St. John’s University men’s golf team has been supporting this event as table captains, heavy lifters, and overall leaders since 2016 and under the leadership of the athletic department now have their own annual on campus service project for male athletes. More than 4,000 athletes have served 6,000 hours and packaged one million meals.
We distribute food all across the world. Check out the places we send food.
Thanks to the generous support of our partners. Reach out if interested in partnering.
