Feeding Children Everywhere charity gets $1 million to address nationwide student hunger issue

Oct. 17--Dave Green wants to help the nation's 12 million kids whose families struggle to afford food by using a free version of meal-kit delivery services made popular by the likes of Blue Apron and HelloFresh.

And the CEO of Longwood-based Feeding Children Everywhere has just gotten $1 million from the Cigna Foundation to help him do it.

The grant, to be formally announced Friday, launches a 16-month partnership that will build the technology, nutritional education programs and delivery system that will allow school counselors and administrators in the nation's high-poverty districts to connect students in need with the service.

Though the list of schools isn't finalized yet, some in Orange County are expected to be included.

"It'll be a huge, huge safety net," Green said. "The direct impact will be providing close to 10 million meals. And then, indirectly, because part of this grant is to create the system, what it's going to do for the long term is really immeasurable."

Instead of seeking help from traditional food pantries -- which requires a family to have transportation and be available to pick up the food at prescribed times -- the meal-kit idea offers flexibility and greater privacy.

"Part of our strategy is also to restore dignity in that process," Green said.

The system lets school personnel pass out gift cards to students whose families need food. The students will only have to give the cards to their families, who will then go online to FullCart.org and order boxes of groceries -- including pasta, red lentil jambalaya, oatmeal, macaroni and cheese, quinoa, red apples and sweet potatoes.

"This is really a new way to look at the problem of childhood hunger," said Julie Hardin, director of civic affairs and community engagement for Cigna. "And I think it's a very innovative way. It's meeting people where they are."

The $1 million to Feeding Children Everywhere is the largest single grant from the health insurance giant in recent years and part of a five-year, $25 million Healthier Kids for Our Future initiative launched in January.

The attention to what's called "food insecurity" -- limited or uncertain availability of safe, nutritious food -- comes after repeated studies have shown that kids from food-insecure households enter school less ready to learn. They have higher risks for hospitalization, poor health, iron deficiency and developmental and behavior problems, including anxiety, depression and attention deficit disorder. And food insecurity is linked to childhood obesity as families turn to cheap fast food and junk food to fill children's stomachs.

Nationally, about 1 in every 7 children is considered food insecure. In Central Florida, the rate is closer to 1 in 4.

While many schools, including those in Central Florida, have created on-site food pantries that offer non-perishable groceries and ready-to-eat foods that kids can take home in a backpack, Hardin said shipping meal kits has several advantages. For one, it allows parents to choose the food, resulting in less risk of waste, and it allows families to receive more fresh produce.

It generally will take two days from the time a family orders until it receives the food.

Most of the packaged food can be cooked and eaten as is or supplemented with meat, milk, vegetables or sauce.

The charity -- started in 2010 with a rice-and-lentil casserole mix it shipped largely to developing countries -- already has the Full Cart online meal order system, which doesn't charge for the food but does charge for shipping. The Cigna grant will eliminate those shipping costs as soon as the program is fully operational, likely before the holiday break.

Already this week, Feeding Children Everywhere has created a portal through its feedingchildreneverywhere.com website to allow individual donors in five cities -- Orlando, New York, Chicago, Dallas and Salt Lake City -- to help groups of families by covering their shipping costs.

"So you can say, 'OK, I want to help somebody in Orlando,' and it'll pull up a list of 20 families, with abbreviated names to protect their identities, their family size and then something about why they're in need of assistance," Green said. When enough people contribute to cover the shipping costs for all 20, those orders are immediately sent out and the list repopulates with new families.

"You'll be able to say, 'These are the actual 20 families that I helped to feed,'" he said.

Hardin believes the system could represent the future.

"How long have we been talking about food insecurity and hunger?" she said. "Addressing it the way that we have been just isn't making the impact that we need. This is a way for us to invest in something that we feel really has national potential."

ksantich@orlandosentinel.com

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