From the Mouths of Babes: Ending Childhood Hunger through Share Our Strength Dine Out 2011

It’s funny how kids are.

My daughter overheard me discussing my companies involvement in the Share Our Strength Great American Dine Out program and about the fact that kids were going hungry everyday in our own backyard. She seemed puzzled that children had to deal with such issues as she sat at the dining room table noshing on chicken fingers and “bean beans” (her way of saying Green Beans).

“Some kids have no food?” She asked. My wife and I explained to her, in the best way we could, the reality of some children’s lives. She asked what we can do to help and I explained that my company is helping the best we can as is so many others are. She wanted to help so, short of getting her to help on a Tweet-Out (Tweeting is not very easy on her little fingers) or hiring her at our restaurants as a Dine Out Ambassador, she volunteered her busy block building time to appear in our PSA awareness video.




The point here is that if a 3 year old can get involved in Dine Out and Share Our Strength to make a difference shouldn’t all restaurants be doing it? We are so fortunate to have so many amazing restaurant groups and independently owned businesses joining in on this amazing campaign. But we could always use more! The other point I want to compose is ‘make this personal’. Make this a view from the parental mind’s eye about the fragility of this situation.

I look have to look at it from a parent’s point of view.

What if, heavens forbid, something was to happen to me or my wife’s economic situation? What if the school my daughter attends ran low on funding for a proper meal program? Sometimes we take for granted what others long to have and have rights to like a meal for their children. Even slightest experiences with hunger can leave lasting negative impressions that impair health, learning and well-being on children as young as 3 years old. The same age as my daughter. That is something that I as a parent cannot risk.

When you think about the fact that 17 Million children in this country have to deal with daily hunger, that number alone should be a call to action for those that have the ability to alter and redirect the course of that tragic fact. Share Our Strength’s Dine Out For No Kid Hungry™ brings together thousands of restaurants and millions of consumers across the nation to help make sure no child in America grows up hungry.

That’s why it’s so very important that people, particularly if you are a parent, come out the week of September 18-24, 2011 as restaurants raise funds in a variety of winning ways to support the Share Our Strength’s No Kid Hungry® Campaign to end childhood hunger in America by 2015. Visit DineOutForNoKidHungry.org for a direct link to restaurants participating in your area.

As a parent I want to thank all the amazing people from the trenches to the boardroom at Share Our Strength who make this program work. It’s a group like this that will help us as a human race, cross the finish line together.