No Kid Hungry Youth Ambassadors Hamza & Bridget at the annual Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance Bake Sale
Every year, the Youth Ambassadors here at the Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance organize a bake sale to raise money for the No Kid Hungry campaign. We held our annual No Kid Hungry Bake Sale this past weekend at the Argenta Farmers’ Market in North Little Rock, and met with huge success! Local bakeries, as well as individuals, donate their specialties then we sell them at a farmer’s market booth to raise awareness about No Kid Hungry nationally and right here in Arkansas.
Arkansas ranks among the highest in the nation in food insecurity among children. 26.3% of children in the state are food insecure, meaning they don’t know where they will get their next meal. In the summer, food insecurity for children becomes even worse, as they cannot rely on school breakfast and lunch. The No Kid Hungry program is working to solve the problem of summer hunger by organizing both permanent and mobile summer meal sites. By working at the Alliance this summer, I’ve had the opportunity to see these meal sites firsthand. Seeing No Kid Hungry’s immediate, positive effects on the children of Little Rock has been an absolute privilege.
Our bake sale raised a total of $538.30 (plus in the month of July Domino Sugar matched the amount raised, totaling over $1K!), which was so much more than I anticipated. It was really incredible to see local bakeries so eager to help our cause – they were very generous with their donations. It was both fun and rewarding to see our efforts in planning the bake sale pay off right in front of our eyes; customers at our booth were almost always willing to donate money in addition to buying something from us. And at the end of the day, we took anything remaining to Our House, a local homeless shelter for families. Their excitement and gratitude was worth so much more than the $538 we raised.
