How was Kids Against Hunger™ started? What is so special about the food you package? What types of people volunteer to package the food? How does the food get to hungry children, and how can you be sure it gets to them? Where have you sent your food? As a Christian organization, do you require the children you feed to be Christians, or your volunteers to be Christians? What other programs does Kids Against Hunger have? How do you raise the money for your food? How much of the money that Kids Against Hunger raises, go directly to feeding children? Is my donation to Kids Against Hunger tax deductible? How was Kids Against Hunger started? The organization was founded in March 1999 by Richard Proudfit, a successful entrepreneur. In 1974 Richard volunteered on a medical mission to Honduras after Hurricane Fifi had ravaged that country. Profoundly affected by the starvation he saw among the children there, he made a decision to commit his life and financial resources to solving the enormous problem of world hunger. His life's work became clear to him— feed these starving children. What is so special about the food you package? The meal ingredients are formulated by food scientists to provide a rich source of easily digestible protein, carbohydrates and vitamins needed by an undernourished child's body and mind. The food is also acceptable to the broad diversity of ethnic tastes and religious differences around the world. The food offers all nine of the essential amino acids required for complete nutrition, something that can't be said about other typical food relief sources such as rice or beans alone. It is also very simple to prepare, requiring only six cups of boiling water to make a complete meal. What types of people volunteer to package the food? While our name implies that children are the source of our volunteers, in practice our volunteers come from all age groups and walks of life. Individuals and groups from churches, synagogues, schools, social clubs, businesses, senior centers and civic groups are common sources of volunteers for packaging our food. Some of the best volunteer experiences come when children, parents and grandparents work together as a family. Schools and corporations often do packaging with us as a community service event. How does the food get to hungry children, and how can you be sure it gets to them? We work closely with our distribution partners - churches, nonprofit organizations and U.S. government agencies operating in poor countries - to distribute the meals prepared by our volunteers. We seek out organizations that have proven track records of successfully getting the food to the children and keeping it out of the hands of corrupt government officials and criminals. We always require our feeding partners to document how they distributed the food and provide us with pictures of the children who receive it. Where have you sent your food? A partial list of the countries that have received our food are Afghanistan, Angola, Chad, Columbia, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Haiti, Indonesia, Kenya, Liberia, Mozambique, Pakistan, Philippines, Romania, Tanzania and the Ukraine. We recently shipped more than 1,000,000 of our meals to the Hurricane Katrina stricken Gulf Coast region in the U.S. As a Christian organization, do you require the children you feed to be Christians, or your volunteers to be Christians? No. We have only one test to feed a child— "is the child hungry?" We have only one test for accepting volunteers— "does the volunteer want to help feed hungry children?" We require any organization that distributes our food to give the food freely out of love for the child. To do otherwise would be a fundamental betrayal of our core beliefs. What other programs does Kids Against Hunger have? The newest initiative of Kids Against Hunger is Student-to-Student, a school feeding program that matches schools in poor countries to American schools. The initiative is a powerful combination of a hunger relief program, a cross-cultural experience for American students, and a service learning opportunity. A recent study by the International Food Policy and Research Institute has shown that school feeding programs in impoverished countries attract children to school and help to retain them once they enroll. Simultaneously, school feeding improves the child's ability to learn and excel at school, thereby creating motivation to remain in school. Families of children in a school feeding program gain food available for the rest of the family by having the child eat at least one meal at school. The extra food can become available for a pre-school sibling, or the child's mother, who often is the last to eat in the poorest of poor families. How do you raise the money for your food? It costs Kids Against Hunger about 25 cents to buy the ingredients, packaging and shipping for each meal. That means when we ship a cargo container (about 285,000 meals) to a country, that it costs Kids Against Hunger $66,000. As a nonprofit organization we raise all our funds from the generosity of individual donors, corporations, churches, synagogues and foundations. Put simply, the more money we receive from donors, the more children we can feed. How much of the money that Kids Against Hunger raises, go directly to feeding children? Every penny donated to Kids Against Hunger of Des Moines goes directly to the purchase of ingredients and supplies to package and ship meals.  We have no additional overhead or administrative costs. Is my donation to Kids Against Hunger tax deductible? Yes. Kids Against Hunger of Des Moines is registered with the IRS as a 501(c)(3) organization and has been given tax-exempt status.  As a donor, this means your contributions are fully tax-deductible to the amount allowed by law.