33% - Louisiana's family household types with children under 18 run by single mothers
According to Columbia University's National Center for Children in Poverty, economic insecurity is the single greatest threat to children's well-being. Unfortunately, when income instability grows, so does hunger; both are real problems here in Southwest Louisiana.
United Way Southwest Louisiana recognized through its impact work that children were going without food. The first in the region, United Against Child Hunger, was created to give identical Weekend Food Packs to each child, regardless of age, leaving the programs on a Friday. Over the years, this initiative has grown in volume, producing more than 50,000 Weekend Food Packs in 10 years.
We are proud of the chain reaction sparked by this desire to help children in need. Our 2025 Day of Caring will be the 12th Anniversary of United Against Child Hunger.
If your organization or nonprofit would like to join the effort, contact us for ways to get involved.
DAY OF CARING
Day of Caring is an annual event in April and 2024 marked our 11th Anniversary.
We made an assembly line of volunteers and prepared thousands of identical Weekend Food Packs for at-risk children in local summer feeding programs in Southwest Louisiana.
If your organization or business would like to get involved in another way, please see the details below or contact us.
The Food Drive
In an effort to work together to end child hunger, United Way Southwest Louisiana partners with the Calcasieu Parish Police Jury Summer Feeding Program by creating Weekend Food Packs so children in the programs have healthy and easy-to-eat foods over the weekend.
United Way Southwest Louisiana works with local companies, organizations and groups to collect food for Weekend Food Packs.
5 out of 6 children who participate in an in-school lunch program do not receive meals during the summer.
Many of these same children go without food on the weekends during school. Summer can be very difficult for at-risk kids without access to school-lunch programs so Summer Feeding Programs are provided. Weekend feeding is taken up by United Way Southwest Louisiana by providing the programs with a bag of meals and snacks that administrators can give to each child to take home on Friday.
JOIN WITH VOLUNTEERS AND ORGANIZATIONS IN YOUR COMMUNITY!
How can you help?
Collect 6,000 Identical Single-Serve Individually Wrapped Items
Your business/organization can collect single-serve individually wrapped items from the list at the right.
IT IS IMPORTANT that EACH WEEKEND FOOD PACK BE IDENTICAL. Our experience has found the items on this list are best for storage and handling.
Our experience has found the items on this list can be eaten without heating or utensils and by any age child.
CONTACT US if you plan to collect items so we can plan for storage, bag size and marketing support.
SINGLE SERVE INDIVIDUALLY WRAPPED
- Bottled Water - 8 oz size
- Juice Boxes
- Pre-Cooked Pop-Top Meals (beans & franks, beefy mac, mac n’ cheese, ravioli, spaghettiOs)
- Vienna Sausages
- Individual Peanut Butter Packs
- Granola Bars
- Beef Jerky Sticks
- Single Packs of Trail Mix
- Small Boxes of Raisins
- Single Packs of Sunflower Seeds
- Small Packs of Peanuts
- Individual Small Boxes of Cereal
- Fruit Snacks
- Single Small Packs of Cookies
- Single Packages of Crackers
Louisiana has the nation’s largest gender wage gap.
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