The study reveals that there are children struggling with hunger in every county in America. Nationally, while one in six Americans overall don’t have proper access to the food they need, the rate for children is much higher: nearly one in four children are at risk of hunger.

It also provides information on Second Harvest Heartland’s service area in which it found that there are more than 200,000 children under the age of 18 that are currently struggling with hunger.

Child hunger is simply unacceptable. The new information gained from this study will help us develop even more ways to improve our child hunger programs like the Summer Food Service Program which provides meals to children who may otherwise go hungry during the summer or the Commodity Supplemental Food Program, which provides a box of nutritious food each month through the Mothers and Children Program (MAC).

For more details on this study check out the entire interactive map here.

Start a Share Your Lunch Drive today! Create a fundraising page in minutes, and we’ll mail you a kit to help run your drive at your workplace, school or even around the neighborhood. Anyone can do it.

Every $10 you raise provides more than a meal a day for a month for a child or family in need this summer. You can make a huge impact!

Start your drive now.

To fill the nutritional gap facing these children during the summer months, Second Harvest Heartland has teamed up with the Minnesota Vikings and Target to work with the Minnesota Department of Education to help facilitate the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) in Minnesota and help bring more meals to more kids this summer.

Do you know a family who could use a little extra help with food this summer?

Check out the Summer Lunch Map, an easy-to-use tool for finding free food for kids across the state this summer. Families can also call 2-1-1 from a landline or text 612-516-FOOD for locations.

Want to help?

Click here to make a gift. Together, we can ensure healthy, plentiful meals for Minnesota kids who need them to grow and thrive.

Vikings players, including running back Adrian Peterson and defensive end Ray Edwards, were on site encouraging kids to continue healthy eating habits over the summer. Youth from Mankato’s three Salvation Army-sponsored feeding sites attended, in celebration of the Vikings organization’s effort to provide an additional 200,000 meals to Minnesota children this summer.

“Sofia Shibly, 9, eats at least one lunch a week, courtesy of the Salvation Army’s mobile unit in her Mankato neighborhood. She said meals have included mashed potatoes and gravy, corn dogs and pizza. But a program administrator quickly chimed in that healthier foods are a key part of the meals.

But Shibly said today was the best meal of all since it was at the Vikings training camp.

‘I had a lot of fun,’ she said.”
(via Pioneer Press)

Pictured below: Young Vikings fans with Adrian Peterson and Ray Edwards of the Vikings, Joan Wadkins of Second Harvest Heartland

The Minnesota Vikings have donated a generous $92,000 to this effort, which will help expand the existing USDA-sponsored program. “The Vikings Children’s Fund aims to positively impact the well-being of our children and help provide them with the means to be healthy, strong and vibrant members of our community as they grow,” said Steve LaCroix, vice president of sales and marketing, chief marketing officer with the Minnesota Vikings. “Proper nutrition will always be essential to a child’s well-being, which is why the Vikings are honored to participate in this program with Hunger Solutions Minnesota and Second Harvest Heartland.”

During the schoolyear, 270,000 children in Minnesota depend on free and reduced-cost school lunches – but only 20% of those children receive the same subsidized meals during the summer.

Together, we can help increase participation in the program and provide more meals to hungry children in our community. Visit www.missingmeals.org to learn more about this exciting new initiative, or visit www.hungersolutions.org.