On any given day in Harris County, there are 88,740 children at risk of experiencing food insecurity. That means more than 1 in 4 children (26.1%) in Harris County experienced food insecurity in the past year. These children will, unfortunately, go to bed hungry, and they are in desperate need of daily healthy meals. Kids' Meals is addressing this heartbreaking need.

 

Kids' Meals (KM), the meals-on-wheels program concept for preschool-aged children, originated in the early 1980s. The organization as it exists today, was created in 2006 (non-profit status received on July 21, 2006) when the charity began servicing two delivery routes on Houston's North and East sides of town. Kids’ Meals currently now has six routes in the Houston area, targeting zip codes where there is a critical need.

 

Kids' Meals’ mission is to deliver free, healthy meals year-round to the doorsteps of Houston’s hungriest preschool-aged children. We deliver nutritious meals to the homes of low-income children not yet enrolled in school or participating in free meal programs. These children receive a healthy lunch from Kids’ Meals every weekday and free of cost year round. We currently deliver approximately 2,700 healthy meals to Houston’s hungriest children. For some of these young children, this is their only daily sustenance, and they depend on a friendly face from Kids’ Meals to show up in our vans to deliver a healthy lunch. We work to address hunger and food insecurity plaguing many children under the age of five who are at home during the day and might not eat lunch while their siblings are are eating free lunch at school.  When school is out, every child in these homes receives a healthy meal from Kids’ Meals – up to 3,700 kids per day.  We are bridging the gap for those families who have little means of obtaining meals for their young children on a regular basis. We are the ONLY meals-on-wheels program in the nation for poverty-stricken preschool children.

 

Although hunger does not discriminate, it is most cruel to innocent children. Kids’ Meals is determined to make a difference! Thanks to the dedication of more than 7,000 volunteers annually and a staff of 20, Kids’ Meals prepares and delivers lunches to hungry children for a total organization cost of less than $2.00 per day. Kids’ Meals’ staff identifies children whose families live in poverty as defined by the federal income eligibility guidelines.  Some the families receiving help from Kids’ Meals are doing so as a result of a disability or hardship. This includes cases of physical or mental illness. Kids’ Meals is bringing hope to these families in crisis.

 

In 2015, Kids’ Meals served 631,496 lunches. That’s a 16% increase over 2014.  We are working towards serving 1 million lunches by 2020.