KPRC: Supporting Kids' Meals and Its Families Following Hurricane Beryl

Transcript: During the summer months, Kids' Meals delivers free, healthy meals to more than 15,000 children. And they had to take a quick pause during Hurricane Beryl, but all deliveries have now resumed. However, the need for food by families is significantly greater. Beth Harp, CEO of Kids' Meals joining us now to tell us more. Beth, thank you so much for being with us. Thank you so much for having us today. Tell us about Kids' Meals. Kids' Meals is growing. there is a new facility now. Yes, you know we're the nation's only home delivery service for preschool age children that are living in food, insecure homes in our city and our county. and we are committed to bringing a healthy meal directly to doorsteps of those children that are most in need. and we are building a new facility because the need is so great in Harris County. Unfortunately, we're number one right now in the nation for children living food insecure. We are building a new building in Spring Branch, which will be in in summer 2025 with the goal to serve.26,000 children a day by 2031. That's an impressive goal. Can i ask you how hurricane kind of got in the way this week? what did it do to your servicing of all these families? really, you know, we see that the families that we serve really are profoundly affected by disasters like this. Many times when you're living in impoverished neighborhoods, you're already feel like you're in a disaster and when disasters like this hit, you really need people outside resources to come in and Kids' Meals wants to be that resource. we couldn't get out for a couple of days, but we're back to serving 15,000 children a day, making sure that our families have adequate water, groceries, as well as a healthy lunches that we deliver. And we also want to be a resource to Houston for any of those families that have children that are 5 and under that that qualify for the national school free lunch program. We want to help anyone can go to our website at kidsmealsinc.org and go to the need help and they can fill out an application and we would love to help them and get them on our routes. we also need volunteers to volunteer from home right now on our website and kidsmealsinc.org. you can go to the take action tab. you can volunteer right from your home, help us make the shelf stable meals. decorate a bag for a hungry child. that is so meaningful and also help us with our amazon wish list. that has a wonderful list of items that we can use that are shelf stable, that we can get out to those families that still don't have electricity that still don't have running water. that would be such a huge help. And families, i'm sure when they see you when they see that that truck coming through the neighborhood, it really makes such a big difference and they let you know. yes, you know, we call our drivers are Hope Providers. we're so much more than a meal. We're the only ones that have daily contact with our families, so we're delivering hope every day. if you can imagine a colorful van pulling up with with driver with a big smile their face a decorated lunch bag full of nutritious food as well as groceries. it really, really delivers help. and they know that they can count on us to know that at least my child is going eat today. and that is so critically important. well, it has to be super fulfilling for the volunteers themselves, too, though, right? yes, you know, we don't exist without volunteers. we use about 20,000 volunteer hours in our in our facility each year. and they just tell us testimonial stories of how some feeling it is because they can know that their work is so impactful that the meals that they may either at home or in our facility will be in the hands. but the hungry child within. 24 to 48 hours. so it truly is making a difference. such a huge difference. and Beth folks can also give financially they can donate as well. yes, you know, only $2 a day makes a huge difference and delivers and meal directly to the homes, apartments and trailers of those children who otherwise many times going to bed hungry and that's our all-in organization cost so anything that people can donate has such a huge impact. and we're committing to being the best stewards of donor dollars. so people that donate to kids meals will know that their dollars are making a huge impact on a daily basis for children that are very hungry. Beth before you go, what's the easiest way for people to donate or help out or even sign up for volunteering? We make it easy. you can go to our website at kidsmealsinc.org and go to the donate tab. and if you want to contribute to amazon wish list. we've got that on the homepage of kidsmealsinc.org and also you can volunteer by going to the same or get website and go to take action. all right Beth Harp with Kids' Meals. we appreciate you. thank you for your time this morning. Thank you so much. we really appreciate you helping us tell our story help so many children harris county.

[@AprilTeniente-eu1mj]

They’re getting hungry for their food!! I’m hungry for some food, too!!