Baylor Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty Awarded $5M for Extension of Innovative Meal Delivery Program
Contact: Craig Nash, Baylor Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty, Communications Director | Craig_Nash@baylor.edu | www.hungerandpoverty.org | Twitter: @BaylorCoHP
WACO, TX – The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) awarded nearly $5 million to the Baylor University Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty (BCHP) to continue their innovative “Meals-to-You” (MTY) demonstration project this summer in Texas, New Mexico, Alaska, and Utah. In addition to USDA, Meals-to-You partners with the PepsiCo Foundation, and McLane Global to provide a stable and reliable food source through home delivery to children in rural areas without easy access to grocery stores or traditional summer meal sites.
Without access to school meals, households with children have higher rates of food insecurity during the summer. The Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) and alternative EBT options from the USDA can be incredibly effective in addressing this challenge, but the distance from these sites and grocery stores creates a significant barrier for children in rural areas. MTY helps alleviate these challenges by shipping nutritious, shelf-stable food directly to the homes of rural families with children.
During the pandemic, the USDA issued emergency resources to scale MTY across the country, eventually serving over 3 million meals weekly. Today, the MTY program is refining its systems and continuing its ground-breaking research to end child hunger. One of the nation’s leading research organizations, the Urban Institute, noted that “MTY offers a promising strategy for adapting existing nutrition program responses to better serve children in all types of communities in the US.”
“In the wealthiest country in the world, it is shameful that millions of children struggle with hunger every day," said Jeremy Everett, executive director of the Baylor Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty. "In the summer months, rural communities face even more challenges accessing a summer meal site. We've seen during the pandemic that innovative programs like Meals-to-You work. We’re proud to have USDA as a partner from day one, and we are grateful for the PepsiCo Foundation and McLane Global’s continued support in the Meals-to-You program to feed kids across the country."
“We’re thrilled USDA renewed its investment in Meals-to-You, which has proven to be a critical strategy in the fight to solve child hunger. Through its Food for Good platform, the PepsiCo Foundation’s partnership with the Baylor Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty is a novel, whole-of-community approach,” said Matt Smith, Senior Director of Strategy & Operations, PepsiCo Foundation. “For decades, PepsiCo has worked to provide children the nutrition they need when they need it most. We’re proud to collaborate with federal agencies, food distribution companies, researchers, and local school administrators to continue making a direct and positive impact on the lives of the families in the communities where we live and work.”
“McLane Global is proud to continue our partnership on Meals to You in 2022. Hunger is a complex problem in our country which needs innovative solutions from a diverse set of partners,” said Denton McLane McLane Global Chairman. “We are pleased to bring our world-class food procurement and logistics skills to the table to feed kids nutritious food this summer.”
The first boxes for the 2022 Meals-to-You program began shipping this week and will continue until the school year begins.