Rural school grant program participants report increased participation in school meals and new, innovative programming thanks to No Kid Hungry grant
AUSTIN, Texas – Today, No Kid Hungry Texas released its Texas Rural School District Cohort Year 2022-2023 Report, detailing the impact of its $180,000 investment in six rural school districts across Texas.
In partnership with the Texas Rural Education Association, the Rural School District Cohort Program provides funding to rural school districts in Texas to directly support their meals programs and create opportunities for collaboration among districts. Last year, the program awarded $30,000 in grants to each of the following districts: Bland ISD, Brookesmith ISD, Junction ISD, Henderson ISD, Slaton ISD, and Smithville ISD.
“For many, school meals play an incredibly important role in their everyday lives, helping alleviate family budgets and providing nourishing and balanced meals to kids that improve their health and academic performance,” said Mia Medina with No Kid Hungry Texas. “Many in these rural communities face increased challenges due to limited access to resources, which is why we make it a priority to work with and support the local school districts.”
The funding granted to these school districts provides assistance in scaling up school meal programs, and allowing to make necessary purchases to further their current capacities, such as kitchen equipment. In some cases, the grant funding is leveraged to launch new initiatives to extend meals to more students, such as at Henderson ISD, where they purchased a custom-made oven, hot/cold warmers, and other equipment to transform an old school bus into a mobile summer meal site for the community.
Tanya Davis, director of child nutrition for Henderson Independent School District, used grant funding from No Kid Hungry to retrofit a school bus into a mobile summer meals site. “This grant was a dream come true,” she said. “We would have never had the opportunity to do anything like this if we had not received this grant.”
In addition to receiving grant funding, cohort members engage in bimonthly collaboration calls to share best practices and innovative ideas, as well as learn how to build and strengthen community partnerships and professional networks.
Nationally, Texas has more rural schools than any other state, with more than 20% of campuses located in rural areas and over 600,000 students enrolled in these schools across the state.
Earlier this year, a study commissioned by No Kid Hungry Texas found that rural Texans faced disproportionate levels of hunger, with 44% experiencing at least one symptom of food insecurity within the previous year, and 25% reporting they had worried they would not have enough food for their household.
School meals provide a consistent source of balanced nutrition for schoolchildren, which is associated with positive academic, behavioral, and physical health outcomes.
Key Insights:
- School Meal Participation:
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- In addition to building new key partnerships, all cohort members reported increased knowledge and improved skills that would aid them in expanding their school meal activities, including school gardens, farm-to-school partnerships, summer meal service, student engagement, and building and maintaining relationships.
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- With 83% of the projects focused on increasing school meal participation, half of the cohort members reported success in one or more school meal programs. With all of those reporting an increase in participation of over 20%, impacting hundreds of students in each district.
- New Programs Funded by Grants:
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- Thanks to the funding, most cohort members were able to implement new programs and/or expand their current initiatives such as conditioning a school bus to transform it into a mobile meal bus to use around the community, expanding school gardens and coffee bars, implementing weekend backpack programs to supply families with food for their homes, increasing scratch cooking practices, and conducting mobile cooking demonstrations for families and children to participate and learn about new ingredients, recipes and cooking techniques.
Read the full report and results here.
To learn more about No Kid Hungry Texas’ work and year-round grantmaking, please visit https://state.nokidhungry.org/texas/.