What does it look like when kids have the meals they need to thrive?
Today, Addison, a 6-year-old girl in Detroit, is an embodiment of this ideal. At her young age, she is confident, happy and strong. She participates in extracurricular activities, loves helping her mom cook and studying math. Not having to worry about her next meal means she can dream far and wide.
Addison said wants to become a doctor, so she can “help people and help the world be strong.”
It’s been three years since Addison and her mom Victoria Washington faced one of the scariest times of their lives. We all remember those days in March of 2020 when the entire world changed. For Washington, it was especially difficult. Before the pandemic, she had been running a successful cookie dough business that sold at sporting venues like Little Caesars Arena. For months, all these venues were closed and events were canceled. Her business had to shut down.
“That is exactly how I provided for my daughter; it was our bread and butter,” she shared. “When our business was shut down it felt like something was taken from me. I was afraid of what would come next and what would be required of me to be able to still provide her basic needs.”
Washington had to pivot and reimagine the journey she had set up for herself and her daughter. She was concerned about affording healthy food and, as the caretaker for Addison, she also had to be careful to avoid getting sick at a time when we were still trying to understand Covid.
During the pandemic, with your support and donations, No Kid Hungry helped communities across the country provide emergency food distributions to families. For Washington, those distributions were convenient, safe and allowed her to continue providing nutritious meals to Addison - who was three years old at the time.
“That was a huge thing,” Washington shared about food distributions. “I wasn't able to just kind of coast and wait for the pandemic to get better… if I didn't have those meals, I would've felt very overwhelmed. It would have affected me as a parent because my focus would have been on scrambling to find food sources.”
Washington tells donors “a huge thank you to the donors for sacrificing their money and their time, and trusting the vision of the No Kid Hungry campaign… It does take money to make this happen.”
Victoria and Addison three years after the start of the pandemic
Today, Washington and Addison are thriving. Washington now works in program management for a nonprofit and takes pride in homeschooling Addison. She dreams her daughter will have a life of abundance, passion and that she will feel no limits in what she can achieve.
At the same time, 1 in 8 children continue to live with hunger in the US today. They may be families experiencing a temporary emergency, suffering the impact of inflation or trying to break the cycle of poverty. With your support, they all have the potential to get those meals that will help them get back on their feet and thrive.
Washington encouraged people to not be afraid or embarrassed to ask for help. She said she “would remind people that the power is in the community. And that sometimes community comes in the form of assistance programs to help us survive through tough times."
