Your good time helps a very worthy cause.
A Letter from John Woods
In the world’s wealthiest nation, no child should grow up hungry. Yet more than 17 million children in America struggle with hunger. Sadly, in Maine, that’s one in four kids who can’t count on getting enough nutritious food to learn, grow, and thrive.
Our teachers tell us that hunger in their classrooms is worse today than it was a year ago: 63 percent of K-8 teachers we surveyed for “Hunger in Our Schools: Share Our Strength’s Teachers Report” said the problem of children coming to school too hungry to learn has increased since 2009. They see school breakfast programs as a key link to students' performing well in school. While more children than ever are benefiting from free or reduced-price school breakfasts, 10.6 million eligible children still do not get them. Only 1 out of 6 children eligible for free summer meals actually receives them, and the others risk falling behind in school readiness over the summer months.
In Maine, Share Our Strength sees a future in which no child ever goes hungry. Our collaboration with the Kennebunkport Festival, along with our own Taste of the Nation® Maine event, allows Share Our Strength to raise critical funds in that effort.
Share Our Strength’s Taste of the Nation is the nation’s premier culinary benefit dedicated to making sure no child grows up hungry. The funds raised will support No Kid Hungry®, Share Our Strength’s campaign to end childhood hunger by 2015. Since 2006, Taste of the Nation Maine has mobilized thousands of volunteers, raised more than $250,000, and funded the most effective anti-hunger organizations across the state.
This year our work will support:
- Good Shepherd Food Bank. The largest food bank in the state, the GSFB collects and distributes foods to nonprofit organizations, including many in York County. www.gsfb.org
- The Preble Street Teen Center. The center provides free low-barrier services to thousands of youth, adults, and families from all around Maine experiencing problems with homelessness, hunger, and poverty, and advocates for solutions to these problems. www.preblestreet.org
- Cultivating Community. Grows over 10,000 pounds of organic produce each year for families living in poverty and engages over 1,000 community youths in growing and distributing food each season. www.cultivatingcommunity.org
- Opportunity Alliance. Opportunity Alliance helps to reduce hunger in the community by providing nutritious, affordable, and accessible meals to children and seniors. The program is partially funded by opportunity alliance's social entrepreneurial business wing. Some of their programs include summer, weekend and vacation meals for school children. facebook.com/TheOpportunityAlliance
Thanks to the Kennebunkport Festival and the commitment of the local community, including the many sponsors and volunteers, proceeds from the Art of Dining ticket sales will support Share Our Strength Maine’s efforts to end childhood hunger. With your help, we are teaching more families how to cook healthy, affordable meals through Share Our Strength’s Cooking Matters™ program and by funding other nutrition education programs. And we are bringing more good people like you to the cause through the No Kid Hungry Campaign and Pledge. Your participation in the Kennebunkport Festival is helping us spread the word about how, together, we will ensure that no child in Maine goes hungry.
Thank you for sharing your strength to end childhood hunger.
Sincerely,
John T. Woods
Taste of the Nation Chair
