Ending Hunger in America, 2014 Hunger Report Full Report | Page 145

CHAPTER 4
to start an alternate breakfast delivery program. As a result, the Arkansas Department of
Education has authorized the Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance to administer the Arkansas
Meals for Achievement pilot grant program, which will provide funding to schools serving
a free breakfast to all students through an alternative breakfast delivery model such as
Breakfast in the Classroom.
Another example of Share Our Strength’s work with the Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance is its training of local staff to implement a program that Share Our Strength has developed to help low-income families prepare healthy meals on a budget. The Cooking Matters
program is more than a cooking class; it includes trips to the grocery store to show parents
how to shop strategically and how to decipher nutrition information to make healthier food
choices. Eighty percent of low-income families prepare dinner at home at least five times
a week. The overwhelming number of parents in Share Our Strength’s Cooking Matters
program say they want to serve their children healthier meals but view the cost of healthy
foods as the main barrier.33
If the No Kid Hungry Campaign succeeds
in Arkansas, or any of the other states, it will be
because Share Our Strength has helped put in place
an infrastructure to carry on the innovations it has
shared and the partnerships it has helped to nurture
among government, nonprofits, and the private
sector. See a list of partners in Box 4.5. The success
of the program in Arkansas is due to the support of
the governor and his staff and the unprecedented
cooperation between the Department of Human
Services and the Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance.
This cooperation includes direct data sharing as
well as strategic planning, open communication,
and commitment to a shared goal of ending childhood hunger in Arkansas.
Hunger must be solved at the local level, but it
takes national partners to bring resources to bear
to support partners at the local level. There are
things that a national organization like Share Our
Strength—or Bread for the World—can do that
support the efforts of local affiliates. For example,
June 21 is National Summer Learning Day, a day
of advocacy sponsored by the National Summer
Learning Association. Children lose the equivalent
of two months of mathematics instruction over
the summer.34 An organization such as Share Our
Strength can forge a partnership with the National
Summer Learning Association to draw attention to
how hunger during the summer months contributes
to lack of retention among low-income students.
www.bread.org/institute?

A Cooking Matters
class at First United
Methodist Church of
Little Rock.

Courtesy of Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance

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