The Chattanooga Area Food Bank received a $10,000 grant from the Red Nose Day Fund to fight childhood hunger in Southeast Tennessee during the 2019 fall semester. Funding helped to provide the equivalent of 26,003 meals through the School Mobile Pantry program to children and families at Copper Basin Elementary School in Polk County.
Established in 2014, the School Mobile Pantry Program serves as a component of the Food Bank’s efforts to alleviate childhood hunger and increase access to healthy and nutritious food for families and children. Last year, the program distributed more than 1.5 million pounds of food which helped to provide over 1.3 million meals across the Food Bank’s 20 county service area.
“Thank you to Comic Relief Inc. and The Red Nose Day Fund for being a constant partner in our efforts to fight hunger,” said Mark Hilling, interim president and CEO of the Chattanooga Area Food Bank. “With their help, hundreds of children and families were able to have the security of knowing from where their next meal was coming.”
One in five people overall and more than one in four children could face hunger as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic’s economic impact. To accommodate the increased need caused by COVID-19, the Food Bank added 20 new mobile pantry distributions and expanded the number of families served at existing mobile pantries.