Announcing New Students Rebuild COVID-19 Grants

No one could have predicted how relevant our Hunger Challenge would be when we started collecting artful recipes from students last fall. We knew that across the United States, millions of low-income students living in urban and rural regions depend on school lunch. According to No Kid Hungry, 1 in 7 American children face hunger each day. What we couldn’t have foreseen is how school closures due to COVID-19 have made hunger more crucial today than ever. Millions of families are experiencing hunger during the pandemic, with blocks-long lines at many food banks.

The Hunger Challenge provides a way for teachers and students to take action to fight hunger, right at home. That’s why Students Rebuild is proud to support new investments in organizations working to combat hunger during the COVID-19 crisis. The Bezos Family Foundation has committed more than $1 million dollars to extend the Hunger Challenge and support local hunger relief nonprofits and farms working tirelessly to connect families with vital resources during this unexpected time.

Our full list of new COVID-19 Hunger Challenge grants is below:

No Kid Hungry
Supporting communities across the U.S.
$750,000
No Kid Hungry is a national campaign run by Share Our Strength, a nonprofit working to solve problems of hunger and poverty in the United States and around the world. Working with local partners across the country, No Kid Hungry is ending childhood hunger by ensuring that kids get the food they need. SR Supported COVID Project: Millions of vulnerable children have lost the school meals they depend on. The Bezos Family Foundation is supporting No Kid Hungry’s work to help schools and community groups find new ways to feed these kids during school closures and beyond.

Save the Children U.S. Programs
Supporting rural communities across the U.S.
$250,000
Save the Children believes every child deserves a future. Founded over 100 years ago, they’ve changed the lives of over 1 billion children. SR Supported COVID Project: As schools remain closed due to COVID-19, they are working to ensure children in some of the poorest communities across rural America continue to learn, get the nutrition they need, and have the emotional support that’s so important right now.

Soul Fire Farm
Grafton, NY
$25,000
Soul Fire Farm is a BIPOC-centered community farm committed to ending racism and injustice in the food system. They are training the next generation of activist-farmers and strengthening the movements for food sovereignty and community self-determination. SR Supported COVID Project: In light of the pandemic, Soul Fire Farm recognizes it is even more essential that we grow our own food and medicine towards self-reliance and community resilience. Soul Fire Farm (SFF) is providing materials, labor, and technical assistance to support approximately 40 families with their home gardens. SFF is also delivering no-cost vegetables, fruits, medicine, and pastured protein to our neighbors who need it most.

Harlem Grown
Harlem, NY
$25,000
Harlem Grown inspires youth to lead healthy and ambitious lives through mentorship and hands-on education in urban farming, sustainability, and nutrition. Founded in 2011, Harlem Grown operates local urban farms, increases access to and knowledge of healthy food for Harlem residents, and provides garden-based development programs to Harlem youth. SR Supported COVID Project: To help alleviate COVID-19 related economic distress, Harlem Grown’s food-focused work continues with the high-need program ‘HG Meals’ as they partner with local restaurants to provide hot, nutritious meals to youth, families, and community members living in shelters throughout Harlem.

Grow Dat Youth Farm
New Orleans, LA
$25,000
Grow Dat Youth Farm’s mission is to nurture a diverse group of young leaders through the meaningful work of growing food. On their farm people work collaboratively to grow food, educate and inspire youth and adults, and build power to create personal, social and environmental change. SR Supported COVID Project: Grow Dat Youth Farm will continue to provide fresh produce to hundreds of families in New Orleans and keep their staff, who are essential workers employed. They also will continue to support their youth leaders who are learning and growing from home.

Haiti Partners Students Rebuild was founded ten years ago as a response to the 2010 Haiti Earthquake. Funds raised by students a decade ago supported the rebuilding of several schools in Port-au-Prince. Given this, Students Rebuild has also made new investments in partners in Haiti. Food insecurity was a critical issue in Haiti before COVID-19, with 49% of Haitians not receiving basic, daily nutrition. During COVID, residents are at an even greater risk of malnutrition and hunger.

Mary’s Meals USA
Port au Prince, Haiti
$150,000
Mary’s Meals is a global movement that sets up school feeding projects in some of the world’s poorest communities, where poverty and hunger prevent children from gaining an education. Mary’s Meals provides one daily meal in a place of learning and is currently feeding 1,425,013 hungry children every school day across five continents. SR Supported COVID Project: This gift to Mary’s Meals will support the expansion of school-based feeding programs in Haiti to feed another 14,285 vulnerable children in their place of education for an entire school year.

CREOLE, Inc.
Port au Prince, Haiti
$25,000
CREOLE, Inc. is focused on people and job creation through agriculture in northern Haiti. Initiatives include terracing mountains, large scale gardening, tilapia farming, coffee production, and more. Their goal is to see people flourish as jobs are created, food is grown, and land is restored. SR Supported COVID Project: CREOLE, Inc. will expand its work to take on malnutrition and hunger in northern Haiti. This investment will enable them to work with partners to create terraces to stabilize mountain slopes and plant them with nutritious fruits and vegetables. Students ages 12-17 will help start and transplant fruit trees on the terraced mountainside for their community.

By participating in the Students Rebuild Hunger Challenge between now and June 26, students and educators worldwide can help us fight hunger: Each artful recipe submitted will count as double! That means $6 will be given to support the work of these amazing organizations each time a student recipe is submitted. Learn more about the Challenge and start submitting recipes today.