No Kid Hungry California

Building a sustainable solution for providing children access to healthy food is at the core of our approach. We leverage existing child meal programs that operate across the country as a funded source of nutritious meals. These programs are embedded in our social, political, and economic systems as a means of feeding children. We work to transform the way schools make use of and operate these programs at the local level, while also promoting program and policy improvements at the state and federal levels. Our team provides the knowledge and resources a school needs to implement a new breakfast program, but to ensure its longevity, we empower school-level champions to serve as internal change-makers – working to fully integrate and customize the breakfast program to the school’s unique set of needs and create a culture that embraces the new approach to breakfast. Once fully operational, reimbursements for food costs from the USDA will sustain these programs over time financially, and the cultural shift supported by school-based champions will ensure the lasting impact of our efforts without our continued presence. The true impact of this work goes beyond increased participation in school breakfast. On average, students in schools that serve breakfast in the classroom score 17.5% higher on standardized math scores and attend 1.5 more days of school per year, which in turn correlates to higher graduation rates. The simple act of ensuring our children are powered by school breakfast sets them on a path to achievement and prosperity that hunger otherwise derails.