CHICAGO (May 18, 2020)—As children across the country are displaced from their typical educational routines, millions who rely on school meals are left without access to proper nourishment. With funding support from Cargill, the national nonprofit Action for Healthy Kids (AFHK) is providing Emergency Meal Distribution Equipment grants to support school districts’ ongoing efforts to ensure kids have access to nutritious meals during extended school closures and through the summer.

“Although children have been at lower risk of infection, COVID-19 affects their health in very significant ways, from nutrition to social and emotional health. Families and children in underserved communities are the most severely impacted,” said Rob Bisceglie, CEO, Action for Healthy Kids. “School districts and school food service processionals were among the first to step up to make sure children were fed during this unprecedented time of school closings. They are on a different front line of the pandemic, and we are in a position to support them by building on our school food access programming.”

AFHK’s network of school districts and food service professionals expressed the need for additional hot and cold food storage containers, additional equipment to create Grab-and-Go curbside meal pickups at schools and other locations within the community, and support for mobile distribution to families who lack transportation or live in outlying or rural communities. Working with the equipment vendor Hubert, AFHK will provide selected school districts with equipment credits for $1,000-$2,000 per site to purchase equipment, such as coolers, insulated bags, packaging materials and even PPE to keep the workers and volunteers safe.

Applications will be reviewed and awarded weekly on a rolling basis.  AFHK will fund as many sites within a district as possible, with highest priority given to schools in communities where Cargill operates including: Springdale, Arkansas; Schyuler, Nebraska; Fresno, California; Hazleton, Pennsylvania, Fort Morgan, Colorado; Nashville, Tennessee; Dodge City and Wichita, Kansas; Fort Worth, Texas; Marshall, Missouri; and Dayton, Virginia. The kits are estimated to serve more than 10,000 children at 100-150 school district sites.

“We are working with partners, like Action for Healthy Kids, to help address the needs of so many whose health, safety and food security are impacted by the spread of COVID-19,” said Jon Nash, Cargill Protein North America leader. “We want to thank Action for Healthy Kids, for their tireless work to ensure children in our communities have the nutritious food they need during this unprecedented time.”

About Action for Healthy Kids®

Action for Healthy Kids is dedicated to improving children’s health and well-being by bringing together educators, families and other key stakeholders to help children lead healthy lives. Through our flagship programs, Game On and Parents for Healthy Kids, programmatic support, and funding opportunities, we impact more than 20 million children in 55,000 schools nationwide and in underserved communities where we can have the greatest impact. Action for Healthy Kids is the organizational home of Active Schools, formerly known as Let’s Move! Active Schools, a collective impact movement of public and private sector partner organizations working to prioritize physical education and physical activity in schools. To learn more about the ways our growing network of 140,000+ volunteers and champions is helping to make sure every kid is healthy, active and ready to learn and thrive, visit us at actionforhealthykids.org

About Cargill
Cargill’s 160,000 employees across 70 countries work relentlessly to achieve our purpose of nourishing the world in a safe, responsible and sustainable way. Every day, we connect farmers with markets, customers with ingredients, and people and animals with the food they need to thrive.

We combine 154 years of experience with new technologies and insights to serve as a trusted partner for food, agriculture, financial and industrial customers in more than 125 countries. Side-by-side, we are building a stronger, sustainable future for agriculture. For more information, visit Cargill.com and our News Center.