What is Kids Against Hunger?

Every hour of every day 12 children per minute die of starvation or malnutrition related diseases.

Kids Against Hunger is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization whose mission is to end that tragedy. Kids Against Hunger packages and ships highly nutritious, life-saving meals to starving and malnourished children in developing countries and the United States. We do this by mobilizing the energy and caring of American children, teens, and adults on behalf of hungry children around the world. Kids Against Hunger seeks to end the literal hunger of poor children receiving the meals, but also satisfies a hunger among prosperous Americans, a hunger for meaning and contribution.

We have a national packaging network made up of our headquarters facility in New Hope, Minnesota, a packaging division in Mankato, Minnesota, and satellites in 14 states and Canada staffed by volunteers who package the meals. In total, the packaging network has the capacity to produce over 20 million meals per year. We also work with other organizations seeking long term solutions to the systemic causes of hunger. Our aim is for our meals to provide a stable nutritional base from which the recipient peoples can move their families from starvation to self-sufficiency. Since its launch, Kids Against Hunger has fed about 50 million meals to children in more than 40 countries through the efforts of over 100,000 volunteers.

It is our mission to significantly reduce the number of hungry children in the USA and to feed God’s starving children throughout the world.

It is our vision to set up food packaging satellites in the USA and around the world, and to spearhead community and youth volunteer packaging of Kids Against Hunger’s highly nutritious meals. It is also our vision to deliver Kids Against Hunger’s food through partnerships with humanitarian organizations in the USA and worldwide.

The meal ingredients are formulated by food scientists to provide a rich source of easily digestible protein, carbohydrates, and vitamins needed by an undernourished child’s body and mind. The food is also acceptable to the broad diversity of ethnic tastes and religious differences around the world. The food offers all 9 of the essential amino acids required for complete nutrition, something that can’t be said about other typical food relief sources such as rice or beans alone. It is also very simple to prepare, requiring only 6 cups of boiling water to make a complete meal.

While our name implies that children are the source of our volunteers, in practice our volunteers come from all age groups and walks of life. Individuals and groups from churches, synagogues, schools, social clubs, businesses, senior centers, and civic groups are common sources of volunteers for packaging our food. Children from the fifth grade on seem to have the best experience in packaging events. Teens require minimal adult supervision and often plan their own packaging events. Some of the best volunteer experiences come when children, parents, and grandparents work together as a family. Schools and corporations often do packaging with us as a community service event.

For more information on Kids Against Hunger at the national level, please visit here.