With a regular schedule of educational activities, daytime outings, and creative crafts, kids participating in our Summer Adventure Camp rely on diverse meals and snacks to keep their energy levels high. Partners like Revolution Foods (Oakland, CA) provided our campers with engaging activities, nutritious treats, and daily lunch service. Thanks to contributions like theirs, and the generosity of our community partners, we can help mitigate food insecurity for the unhoused families we serve.
What is food insecurity? For many families, it is a lack of regular access to safe and nutritious food. Throughout the pandemic, Silicon Valley has seen a drastic increase in food insecurity; more families rely on food stamps, food banks, and financial aid than before. According to the Silicon Valley Index, 12% of our population is food insecure, while 40% of all food in the region goes to waste.
Our teams rely on school lunch programs during the academic year to offer nutritious meals to their students. With in-person classes put on pause, regular meal service is essential for the children staying at LifeMoves sites.
In preparation for Summer Adventure Camp, our teams come up with fun and fresh meal plans for the seven-week program, including a daily lunch service. Choices consist of deli sandwiches, pasta salads, and a variety of nuts and crackers, and each lunch comes with fruit and carrot sticks to add color and nutritional value to the plate. BBQ chicken sandwiches were a big hit among campers.
This summer, LifeMoves and Revolution Foods worked together to serve healthy meals to more than 40 campers, adding up to 160 meals per week! Any extra food went directly to individuals staying at the site, helping reduce food waste and providing additional options to our clients.
Campers also learned how to grow their own food by planting fruit and vegetable seeds, watering them, and watching them sprout. Our kids had quite the green thumb, tending to their seedlings with care and reporting on their progress to staff. Our Nutrition team made sure to incorporate educational activities into the camp schedule, playing games like naming plant parts in the garden, identifying food groups, and setting their own colorful plate.
Our Nutrition program and meal service are essential in reducing food insecurity and modeling what healthy meals look like for the families we serve. With help from our generous partners and regular food donations, we’re able to support all the children staying at a LifeMoves site with their own roadmap to a healthy and happy lifestyle.
You can help ensure the continued success of Summer Adventure Camp by donating today: