Fighting Student Hunger
One in four children in New Hanover County are hungry. Nearly 800 children in New Hanover County are considered homeless. And that is exactly what BETH HOLLIS, executive director of NOURISH NC, is trying to combat.
“This is a huge need right here in our own backyard,” Hollis says. “If we all work together, we can move closer to our goal of ‘One Less Hungry Child’ in New Hanover County.”
Nourish NC is a grassroots nonprofit that strives to connect New Hanover County students with healthy food during weekends, summer vacation, and holiday breaks at Christmastime and in the spring.
“Our goal is to reduce food insecurity so the students come to school on Monday well fed and ready to learn,” Hollis says.
Through the group’s Backpack Program, Nourish NC is currently serving 409 students in New Hanover County. The students range in age from five to eighteen and attend nineteen different schools.
“Students are referred to us by the social workers at each school,” Hollis says. “We also strive to feed each school-age child in a family that has been identified by the school. That way, all children in the family have weekend food.”
After a child has been identified, Nourish NC provides them with weekend food each week – seven meals and two snacks. And to honor the privacy and dignity of the children they serve, the company requires that the food be taken home in a backpack. They provide one if the child does not have access to his or her own.
The food contained in each backpack is “non-perishable and easily consumable,” according to the Nourish NC website. Items such as canned tuna, breakfast bars, macaroni and cheese, beef jerky, and canned fruits and veggies are included in the backpacks.
“If a student is hungry, then they cannot learn,” Hollis says. “If a student is sent to bed at night without food, they feel they are being punished. If a student is hungry and can’t participate in classroom activities, they are rejected by their peers and therefore feel punished. If a student comes to school on Monday morning and hasn’t eaten all weekend, they will gorge themselves to the point of being sick. What happens if you get sick at school? You miss class and therefore cannot learn.”
Hollis says Nourish NC, which became a 501(c)3 in 2010, was started after founder Kim Karslake was reading with students at Carolina Beach Elementary School.
“These students kept asking her if she brought them snacks,” Hollis says. “This made Kim inquire with the school social worker about food insecurity in students in the school.”
Those inquiries revealed what Karlake had feared: for some students, their only meals were the two that they received at school – breakfast and lunch.
“Kim enlisted another mother, Monique Thompson-Hroncich, and together with volunteers from the island, starting feeding twenty students,” Hollis says.
The rest is history.
Now serving over 400 children in New Hanover County, Hollis says the group welcomes community volunteers and Nourish NC will host its first One Less Hungry Child Gala on September 12 at The Terraces on Sir Tyler.
For more information about the fundraiser, the group’s programs, or volunteering, go to www.nourishnc.org or email director@nourishnc.org.
