Our Mission
Our goal and our passion is to support public school students by ensuring that their bellies and their minds are filled. Students can't learn to their full potential when they are hungry, and their families can't support their learning when they can't afford groceries or school meals. Hungry Minds seeks to help those public school students and families who may or may not qualify for government assistance but have food security issues. We offer not only our own programs, but support other organizations as well. Hungry Minds also seeks to help those same students open the door to opportunity via higher education. Whether you are a family in need, an education professional, a school counselor or anyone else who sees a need that fits within our mission, we hope you will contact us.
What We Do
We work with school districts to provide funds to prevent school meal debts, as well as also fund and participate in other school programs (weekend food packs, funding for summer camp meals, etc.). Take a look at the “case study” below for our engagement with Delanco schools.
We support other organizations and their programs to feed public school students and their families, such as the school pantry, summer meals and mobile cafe programs at the Food Bank of South Jersey
We purchase and deliver groceries and supplies to families of public school students with demonstrated food security issues
We have funded a scholarship via the Rowan University Foundation for one graduate each year from either Moorestown or Delran High Schools
Hungry Minds Supporting the Delanco Township School District
A Case Study
After the USDA discontinued providing free school meals for all students, the Delanco school district experienced an increase in students and families who could not pay. This resulted in unpaid meal debt. Hungry Minds worked with the district to establish and fund a “cafeteria account,” administered by food service management, to pay when students had no funds in their private accounts. There are many reasons why students and famililes fall behind this way: 1) they may qualify for free or reduced cost meals, but for any number of reasons are late submitting the paperwork. The benefits are not retroactive, and in the meantime debts pile up; 2) families may have immigration status concerns; 3) there may be an unknown situation at home such as a parental illness or loss from a fire or natural disaster. The cafeteria account can provide a temporary bridge for all these needs and avoid the accumulation of debt.
As a second step, Hungry Minds made a donation to the district to retire a portion of its historical debt, and the district agreed to a Hungry Minds proposal to appeal to the public for assistance. Hungry Minds agreed to match $0.50 on every dollar donated up to a specified maximum to help retire the debt and prevent the district from having to pursue collection activities. Hungy Minds set up a dedicated landing page on its charitable contributions platform, Givebutter, to track these donations. A copy of the joint Delanco/Hungry Minds appeal is available here.