rapid city

Every hour of every day 10 children per minute die of starvation or malnutrition related diseases. Kids Against Hunger is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization whose mission is to end that tragedy. Kids Against Hunger packages and ships highly nutritious, life-saving meals to starving and malnourished children in developing countries and the United States. We do this by mobilizing the energy and caring of American children, teens, and adults on behalf of hungry children around the world. Kids Against Hunger seeks to end the literal hunger of poor children receiving the meals, but also satisfies a hunger among prosperous Americans, a hunger for meaning and contribution.

We have a national packaging network made up of our headquarters facility in New Hope, Minnesota, a packaging division in Mankato, Minnesota, and satellites in 16 U.S. states and Canada staffed by volunteers who package the meals. In total, the packaging network has the capacity to produce over 50 million meals per year. We also work with other organizations seeking long term solutions to the systemic causes of hunger. Our aim is for our meals to provide a stable nutritional base from which the recipient peoples can move their families from starvation to self-sufficiency. Since its launch, Kids Against Hunger has provided over 100 million meals for children and their families in more than 40 countries through the efforts of over 200,000 volunteers.

The organization was founded in March 1999 by Richard Proudfit, a successful entrepreneur. In 1974 Richard volunteered on a medical mission to Honduras after Hurricane Fifi had ravaged that country.  Profoundly affected by the starvation he saw among the children there, he made a decision to commit his life and financial resources to solving the enormous problem of world hunger. His life’s work became clear to him – feed these starving children.

Richard Proudfit enlisted leading executives at Cargill, Pillsbury, General Mills, and Archer Daniels Midland to formulate a food that would meet all the nutritional requirements of severely malnourished children for physical growth and mental development. The result was the creation of a balanced, high nutrition food that can reverse the starvation process, and restore a child’s health and mental alertness.

To learn more about Richard Proudfit, please click here.

There are currently satellite locations in 22 U.S. states, District of Columbia and Canada and more than 60 countries. A complete list of locations can be found here. 

Again, Kids Against Hunger is a humanitarian organization. We have only one test to feed a child – ‘is the child hungry?’ We have only one test for accepting volunteers – ‘does the volunteer want to help feed hungry children?’ We require any organization that distributes our food to give the food freely out of love for the child without coercion or religious tests. To do otherwise would be a fundamental betrayal of our core beliefs.

Kids Against Hunger is a humanitarian organization that is not affiliated with or restricted to a particular religious group (nonsectarian). We do not discriminate on any basis in any way, shape or form. All religions and non-religious groups can volunteer, donate, and help in any way. We feed children from all walks of life. Some of our volunteers and satellites are driven by their love of God and helping to feed all of His children, but all are welcome to help out in any way. We have had volunteers that are Jewish, Muslim, Lutheran, Buddhist, Hutterite, Methodist, Catholic, and others. We have had volunteers with no religious ties whatsoever. Despite our various diverse backgrounds, we all want to help feed starving children.

Although our main focus is on feeding starving children abroad, we also help children and their families within the U.S. The recommendation we give to our food packaging centers (we call them "satellites") is to ship 2/3 of the packaged meals abroad and have 1/3 of them remain within the local community. Some of our satellites focus almost exclusively on helping children and their families in the U.S., e.g. through outreach to inner city families, homeless people, Native American reservations, seniors, and children.

The main reason we are focusing on other countries in the first place is because even though you will find HUNGRY people within the U.S., you won't find STARVING people. People in this country have food shelves and other places to assist them, whereas kids in foreign countries do not.

Kids Against Hunger does not usually ship the meals directly to a foreign country. Instead, we rely on the expertise of reliable and trustworthy feeding partners to get the food to its destination safely. We work with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in over 40 countries to get our food shipped and distributed. A 40 ft. container of meals includes over $65,000 worth of food. As a nonprofit organization, we have to raise the funds for ingredients and supplies to package the food. We work with our feeding partners to cover our costs so that we can continue to provide our highly nutritious meals to starving children worldwide.

Yes, check out our YouTube channel here.

There are also several other videos available to watch online (click on the links below):

Four Minute Overview of Kids Against Hunger (on YouTube)
"The News Hour with Jim Lehrer" (aired on 12/22/08 on PBS)
"Religion & Ethics News Weekly" (aired on 12/13/08 on PBS)
"On the Road with Jason Davis" - Minnesotans against hunger (aired 05/11/08 on KSTP)
"On the Road with Jason Davis" - Interview with Richard Proudfit (aired 05/08/08 on KSTP)

Please check our "News" section periodically for additional video clips from our feeding partners and food packaging events.

Rice	Soy	Vitamins & flavoring	Vegetable blend

The meal ingredients are formulated by food scientists to provide a rich source of easily digestible protein, carbohydrates, and vitamins needed by an undernourished child’s body and mind. The food is also acceptable to the broad diversity of ethnic tastes and religious differences around the world. The food offers all 9 of the essential amino acids required for complete nutrition, something that can’t be said about other typical food relief sources such as rice or beans alone. It is also very simple to prepare, requiring only 6 cups of boiling water to make a complete meal.

Our food consists of:

• high-quality white rice
• fortified, crushed soy - 52% protein
• blend of 6 dehydrated vegetables
• 21 vitamins & minerals

The specific formula took nearly three years to develop. The rice was chosen because it is so widely recognized worldwide. We use premium long-grain white rice. We chose white rice specifically because of its shelf life. The soy we use is fortified with ten vitamins in addition to the high protein content of the soy. The vegetables provide both color and flavor to the food. The vitamin formula is a proprietary formula and is the “secret sauce” that goes into our food.

We provide 21 vitamins and minerals and each bag of our food contains six servings of the dehydrated food which when boiled will serve six children and provide all the vitamins and minerals they need for a day. It provides not just a meal - but better health to starving children. Additionally, our bags are specifically made to be three-ply for strength and they are made of a moisture-proof and odor-proof material to prevent spoilage and insect or rodent problems. Our food has a shelf life of at least three years.

Seeing is believing:

Her bloated bellly shows that she is severely malnourished...	...after 18 months of eating Kids Against Hunger's food...	...and all grown up!

The average program cost to produce each Kids Against Hunger meal is 25 cents.

Each bag of food (400 grams) includes six one-cup servings.
Each 33-pound box of food holds 36 bags of food. That is the equivalent of 216 meals at a program cost of only $54. Each 40-foot container load of food includes 285,120 meals or 40 pallets of food at a program cost of approximately $71,280.

Kids Against Hunger purchases the ingredients for its meals at very competitive prices through longstanding relationships with reliable suppliers. The necessary funds are raised through donations from individuals, corporations, churches, and other organizations.

We work closely with our distribution partners - churches, nonprofit organizations, and U.S. government agencies operating in poor countries - to distribute the meals prepared by our volunteers. We seek out organizations that have proven track records of successfully getting the food to the children and keeping it out of the hands of corrupt government officials and criminals. We always require our feeding partners to document how they distributed the food and provide us with pictures of the children who receive it.

Each Kids Against Hunger food packaging satellite is able to choose where its packaged food will be distributed. The International Headquarters office recommends that approximately two thirds of the meals be shipped internationally, and that the remaining third be distributed locally, but allocation varies based on each satellite's location and global/local need. Some satellites focus almost exclusively on shipments to a particular country – while others put a higher emphasis on helping those in need within the local community where the food is being packaged.

The following is a list of countries Kids Against Hunger's meals have been shipped to within the last several years:

We prefer to ship where the need is the greatest, but we have to be careful. We have relationships with NGOs (non-governmental organizations) on the ground in the receiving countries and when one of our international partners appeals to us, we put them in line for a shipment. We can only ship to places where we know the food will be properly and freely distributed through an organization that can handle such an effort. Accountability is key - we need to have a good relationship with people we trust to do the right thing, because we can't always be there in the countries we're shipping to when the food is being distributed.

We purchase bulk raw ingredients and store them at our warehouse. Then, volunteers like you come in and assemble the bags using our ingredients. The bags are then boxed up, loaded onto a pallet and stored to await shipment. Our international shipping is provided by the U.S. government or our international feeding partners. They pick up the cargo (or we have it shipped to their location within the U.S.) and transport it by plane or by ship to the destination country.

It's not enough to simply fill the stomach and walk away. It's not enough to simply send food. This is why we partner with people on the ground who promote continued sustainability in these regions. What does that mean? Well, it means that some of our partners are setting up schools, teaching the local people how to farm and ways to improve their health. They administer necessary emergency medicines and teach people about proper hygiene and basic first aid.

There are many efforts made to teach the local people how to advance so that they are never on the brink of starvation again. That's not to say we never deliver to the same place twice - sometimes the children in the area need a little extra boost of nutrition so we will go in with another smaller shipment when necessary.

We are in constant communication with our partners on the ground regarding just such an issue. It doesn't do good for us to go into a situation where we're causing harm. Our NGOs will tell us that their region is suffering a drought and the crops have been destroyed, and what little food they do have available is too expensive for the local people. If there is a viable agricultural commodity in an area, the situation wouldn't be desperate enough for an appeal from an NGO, and we take steps to determine the actual need.

While our name implies that children are the source of our volunteers, in practice our volunteers come from all age groups and walks of life. Individuals and groups from churches, synagogues, schools, social clubs, businesses, senior centers, and civic groups are common sources of volunteers for packaging our food. Children from the fifth grade on seem to have the best experience in packaging events. Teens require minimal adult supervision and often plan their own packaging events. Some of the best volunteer experiences come when children, parents, and grandparents work together as a family. Schools and corporations often do packaging with us as a community service event.

A “satellite” is an independent, mostly volunteer-driven nonprofit organization that is affiliated with Kids Against Hunger and has followed the process of becoming officially licensed to use the Kids Against Hunger name and food formula through the organization’s headquarters in New Hope, MN. Individuals at each satellite package the proprietary Kids Against Hunger food for the malnourished and starving children of the world.

A satellite must have a facility in which it can set up its manual packaging equipment and store supplies and the packaged food. The actual food packaging is done by volunteers and so the satellite needs the ability to attract, schedule, and supervise volunteer food packagers as well as the ability to fundraise to cover the cost of the ingredients used. For more information on satellites (and to find out how you can set up your own), please read this article.

Yes! We have a mobile packaging unit and are able to do packaging events in Rapid City and within 60 miles of Rapid City. For an in-town event, you'll need 10 to 40 people.  For out-of-town events, we prefer a minimum of 80 people who can work in two 2-hour shifts.  Since we are funded completely by donations, we ask that your team raise the funds needed to cover the cost of ingredients.  For guidelines and available dates, call Kreena at 605.484.8305 or email info@kahrapidcity.org.

Yes. When making your donation through the “Donate” link on this web site, select “in honor/memory of” in the optional “Donation is” field and enter the person’s name. Please enter that person’s street address if you would like us notify him/her. Making a donation in honor/memory of someone is optional and that field does not have to be completed in order for the donation to be processed.

It costs Kids Against Hunger about 23¢ to buy the ingredients, packaging, and shipping for each meal. That means when we ship a cargo container (285,120 meals) to a country, it includes $66,000 worth of food. As a nonprofit organization we raise all our funds from the generosity of individual donors, corporations, churches, synagogues, and foundations. Put simply, the more money we receive from donors, the more children we can feed.

There are many convenient ways to support Kids Against Hunger by making a donation:

• Mail a check, money order, or cash to: KAH Your Site, Your Address, Your City, State ZIP.
• Make an online donation right here on our web site (using PayPal). You can choose to use a PayPal account, or have the donation charged to your credit card. To donate, please click on the “Donate” link at the right.
• Sign up for monthly automatic withdrawal of your donation with your checking/savings account or credit card. The authorization form can be found here.