June 28, 2022
Contact: Johanna Elsemore, jelsemore@strength.org
No Kid Hungry Texas today announced $180,000 in funding to address childhood hunger in rural communities through its Rural School District Cohort, a collaboration with the Texas Rural Education Association. This marks the second cohort of school districts to participate in the initiative, first launched in 2021.
Six school districts across the state will participate in the year-long program, designed to support peer-to-peer collaboration and innovation around the unique challenges and opportunities associated with feeding students in rural school districts. No Kid Hungry Texas awarded a $30,000 grant to each school district to expand and improve their child nutrition programs. The cohort will bring together the child nutrition director from each district to share best practices and then adapt them locally with their own team.
“Child hunger exists in every Texas community, but we know it to be an even bigger challenge in rural parts of our state. At the same time, the challenges facing our entire nation, like supply chain disruptions and the increased cost of food and fuel, are oftentimes even more pronounced, making it that much harder to keep school nutrition programs afloat,” said No Kid Hungry Texas Program Manager Mia Medina. “The Rural School District Cohort is an investment in developing and sharing innovative solutions to those challenges so that kids in the most remote parts of our state can still count on nutritious food.”
“Since teaming up with No Kid Hungry Texas last year to launch the first of its kind Rural School District Cohort, we’ve been incredibly impressed with the innovative solutions our rural school nutrition directors have come up with to solve the unique challenges facing their districts. We’re excited to partner once again to assist our membership in making their school meal programs stronger than ever to combat childhood hunger” said Bill Tarleton, Executive Director of Texas Rural Education Association
The following school districts were selected to participate in this year’s No Kid Hungry Texas Rural School District Cohort: Junction ISD, Brookesmith ISD, Bland ISD, Smithville ISD, Slaton ISD and Henderson ISD.
Even prior to the coronavirus pandemic, childhood hunger was a huge problem in many rural parts of the country: 84% of U.S. counties with the highest rate of childhood hunger are rural, according to the USDA. Given the devastating economic impact the coronavirus pandemic and its aftermath have had on rural communities, we expect that disparity has grown. Texas is home to more rural students than any other state with 3,300 schools in rural communities. Approximately 700,000 school aged children live in a rural Texas community, many of which live in food-insecure households.
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About No Kid Hungry
No child should go hungry in America. But in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, 1 in 4 kids could face hunger this year. No Kid Hungry is working to end childhood hunger by helping launch and improve programs that give all kids the healthy food they need to thrive. This is a problem we know how to solve. No Kid Hungry is a campaign of Share Our Strength, an organization committed to ending hunger and poverty. Join us at NoKidHungry.org.
About the Texas Rural Education Association
TREA is a statewide organization with a formal affiliation with the National Rural Education Association. TREA promotes quality educational opportunities and experiences for all children from rural public schools which will enable them to live and compete in a global society. Visit txrea.com for more information