Champions for Kids #SIMPLEGiving

I participated in this program on behalf of Champions for Kids and The Motherhood. All opinions are my own.

Here’s a staggering statistic, did you know that 10% of kids living in food-insecure homes don’t know if they will have a breakfast everyday? In fact, 9.8 million kids get free or reduced price school breakfast on an average day, but 10.6 million eligible kids go without. These numbers are more than ever before. What is no surprise, however, is that hunger has a huge effect on how a child performs at school. In fact, 9 out of 10 teachers say having a healthy breakfast is a key to academic achievement.

Now, I must admit that breakfast is not my specialty. It’s always quick and convenient around here. However, I always make sure they have something to start their day, even if that something is a toaster pastry. I also know that they have a choice of whatever breakfast they’re serving at school. I never considered how fortunate we were for that option.

Every child should have breakfast, that’s simple. To do our small part, I called on family and friends to bring breakfast items like cereal, oatmeal, fruit, and muffin mixes. We gathered a lot of kid-friendly items! I then boxed it all up and donated to our local food bank. It’s a simple gesture that didn’t take a lot of time but will help many kids get the breakfast they need. You could also enlist your local church, school or neighborhood community to participate in the donation drive. Champions for Kids makes it simple to give children in local communities the resources they need to thrive, and even has a list of 4 basic steps to follow to make donating easy.

Helping others does not have to come in large doses. Every little bit counts. Champions for Kids seeks to ignite generational change by fostering a habit of giving among youth and parents in America. While I donated to our local food bank for our SIMPLE Service Project, you can also donate at your nearest Walmart in specially marked purple bins for SIMPLE Giving.

SIMPLE Service Projects

From April 15 through May 15, Champions for Kids is partnering with Kellogg Company and Diamond Foods to encourage community projects across the country benefiting children in need. Called SIMPLE Service Projects, the idea is to host or organize an event to collect breakfast foods that you would then donate to a local organization that serves children in need, such as a food pantry, shelter or daycare center. And if you share details of your SIMPLE Service project with Champions for Kids, Kellogg Company will make a matching donation up to 1,000 breakfast items! Check out the Champions for Kids flyer for more details, as well as additional ideas on how to organize a successful SIMPLE Service Project.

SIMPLE Giving at Walmart

Here’s another way that anyone can participate in the SIMPLE Giving campaign just by purchasing and donating breakfast food items at local, participating Walmart stores April 21 through May 5. All donations will go to children in schools near each participating Walmart store. The school district that collects the most donated items from a single Walmart store in its division will also receive $10,000 from Champions for Kids. And the school district that collects the most donations from a Walmart store in its region will receive $1,000 from Champions for Kids. For a full list of participating stores, school districts, Walmart Divisions/Regions and official rules click here.