Category: hunger

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A Man Paid off the Entire School Lunch Debt for 400 Kids in His Town

Children should never go hungry in the United States, but the sad fact is that it happens every day to thousands and thousands of kids. And sometimes we forget there are actually things we can do to help – but there are.

Andrew Levy, a real estate agent in Jupiter, Florida, decided to take things into his own hands after he saw a list detailing the outstanding lunch debt owed by 400 kids in 9 schools in his area.

The debt totaled $944.34, which is not so much, all things considered. Levy decided to pay the entire debt off for the kids and their families.

One man in Jupiter, Florida, decided that he could make a difference in his town by paying off the lunch debt for every child in the system.

Posted by 5NEWS on Monday, October 14, 2019

A woman in Jupiter named Angie Vyas-Knight got the ball rolling when she shared a post on Facebook talking about the school lunch issue and how kids were going hungry. She then got the local stats from the Palm Beach County school board and compiled a list outlining the debts. This list eventually reached Andrew Levy, who said, “I thought that’s crazy. Food is something you shouldn’t have to think about. Children shouldn’t learn hungry.”

After he paid off the debt, Levy started thinking about the issue in a bigger context. Levy realized that many more kids in his area, not just in Jupiter, need help paying for their school lunches. In fact, students in Palm Beach County, a district with more than 180,000 students, currently have an outstanding lunch debt of $50,000 .

Levy said, “I’m going to do either a GoFundMe page or a fundraising page that can raise money every quarter, so lunch debt never accumulates so that children never have to worry about a hot meal and parents never have to worry about paying the bill.”

If you want to help out, visit the district’s website to get more information.

Unfortunately, this is a major issue that many school districts have to address. We can only hope that more people like Andrew Levy will step up to the plate to help out the kids in need.

It’s called thinking BIG!

The post A Man Paid off the Entire School Lunch Debt for 400 Kids in His Town appeared first on UberFacts.

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This Beer Company Is on a Mission to Feed the Hungry

One beer company is on a mission to make a positive difference in the world by donating 100% of its profits to feed the hungry.

Jacquie Berglund, the founder of the beer brand Finnegans, says she was inspired by the Paul Newman Foundation and their 100% profit donation model. Finnegans is sold in four Midwest states, and every cent earned goes toward the Finnegans Community Fund, which works to provide food to the needy.

As the child of a waitress and janitor, Jacquie understands poverty and food insecurity on a personal level, FreeThink reports.

“I understand the condition of the working poor,” Jacquie said.

One in six people in the U.S. don’t have enough food for a healthy lifestyle, according to Allison Karpyn, associate professor in Human Development and Family Sciences at the University of Delaware. Food insecurity doesn’t just mean starvation; sometimes it means a lack of consistent access to grocery stores with real, nutritious food.

“I’m a basic needs gal,” Jacquie said. “We live in the wealthiest country in the world. It’s a crime that people can’t meet their basic needs.”

Finnegans’ motto is that they “turn beer into food.” The profits go toward buying organic produce from local farmers and distributing that produce to food banks in the area. They also run a “reverse food truck” which collects food and monetary donations in exchange for beer samples.

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What does “doing good” mean to you, and how do you work that into your household? Your career? Your social life? Jacquie Berglund from @finnegansbeer has something to say about it! FINNEGANS is a brewery and taproom offering solutions to food insecurity and supporting social entrepreneurs. She’ll be joined by folks from @allsquarempls and @taremarket, and the whole thing is moderated by @minnesotapublicradio‘s @mariannecombs. Join us on June 27 for @towntalksonnicollet at @westminstertownhallforum for a great, free event and explore “Doing Well by Doing Good.” . . 5:00pm: Happy Hour with snacks and a cash bar 6:00pm: Panel discussion, with Q&A 7:00pm: Meet & Greet the Panel

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In 20 years of business, Finnegans has distributed about 2 million pounds of organic food to families in need, and they’re not slowing down anytime soon.

The post This Beer Company Is on a Mission to Feed the Hungry appeared first on UberFacts.

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37% of public school teachers use personal money…

37% of public school teachers use personal money to buy food more than once a month for their hungry students. They spend an average of $35/month. With 3.1M teachers in the US, teachers are spending about $400M/year of their personal money to feed hungry students. 00