Rewarding Families Who Help Feed The Hungry (NAPSA)—If you know where your next meal is coming from, you're one of the lucky ones. Every year more than 13 million children don’t. And, during the summer months, when school is closed and with no access to school meal plans these kids often don’t know where they are getting their next meal. Fortunately, many American families are helping to alleviate the nation’s hunger problem and the Families Feeding America™ contest seeks to reward their efforts. The Dannon Company and America’s Second Harvest, the nation’s largest organization of emergency food providers, have partnered to educate the public about the growing problem of childhood hunger, especially during the summer months, to reward families that help to strike out hunger; to help raise funds and encourage volunteerism for hunger-relief projects. The contest honors families who volunteer at their local food pantries. To enter, in 500 words or less, describe what you are doing to make an impact on hungerrelief in your community. The grand prize will include $10,000 for the winning family’s hungerrelief organization to which they volunteer, as well as $1,000 in free groceries for their own family. According to the United States Department of Agriculture, nearly 13 million children lived in households deemed “food insecure,” hungry, or that were at risk of hunger in 2000. More than 9 million children are recipients of food from a pantry, kitchen or shelter within A teenage volunteer brings meals to hungry kids. the network of America’s Second Harvest. Summer is a bad time for childhood hunger: 46.2 percent of pantry programs indicated there are more children in the summer, while 68.2 percent of kitchen programsindicated an increase. In 2001, requests for emergency food assistance from families with children increased by 19 percent in American cities over the previous year. “Hunger doesn’t take a summer vacation. Summer can be a very seary thing for many children who don’t know if they are going to go to bed hungry,” said Bob Forney, president, America’s Second Harvest. Entries can be submitted at www.dannon.com or mailed to: Families Feeding America, c/o Fleishman-Hillard, 220 East 42nd Street, New York, NY 10017. All entries must be postmarked by October 17, 2003 and received by October 24, 2003. For more information about Families Feeding America or to obtain an entry form, visit www.dannon.com.
