Before the pandemic, one in five children in California lived with hunger; now, it’s one in four. In the Morongo Basin, the Morongo Unified School District serves breakfast and lunch to ALL district students at no cost, regardless of income. In addition, the Boys & Girls Club of the Hi-Desert also serves free meals to children. Managing editor Tami Roleff has more information about companies that are partnering to feed our children….
Since classes in the Morongo Unified School District are being held online, the No Kid Hungry campaign is working with the Discovery channel’s “Turn Up! Fight Hunger” initiative to help school districts distribute bags of food to students. Kathy Saile says the initiative is helping schools in other ways, too.
“When schools started closing in March and they were switching over to the curbside pickup, they needed a lot of PPE, and a lot of extra packaging and other equipment, and we were able to grant nearly $4 million.”
Will Dittmar at Save the Children works with Discovery’s ‘RISE’ program, which stands for ‘Reducing Inequality and Supporting Empowerment.’ They help meet families’ basic needs in the Morongo Basin.
“That’s what we do at Save the Children is needs assessment and then, immediately pivoting to find the resources to meet those needs—everything from direct cash resources for families to grants to schools to make sure they can continue their feeding programs in the summer.”
He says RISE has spent millions on emergency food boxes, and supports educational programs for 95-hundred kids at 26 rural schools in the Golden State. More information is online at discoveryrise.org or turnup.org.
Meals are available at:
Boys and Girls Club
Morongo Valley Elementary School
Yucca Mesa Elementary School
Yucca Valley High School
Yucca Valley Elementary School
Onaga Elementary School
La Contenta Middle School
Friendly Hills Elementary School
Joshua Tree Elementary School
Landers Elementary School
Twentynine Palms Elementary School
Twentynine Palms High School
Twentynine Palms Junior High School
Palm Vista Elementary School
Oasis Elementary School
Condor Elementary School
