June 26, 2018
Posted By Jason Patton
Hope. Delivered.
Many children in Alabama rely heavily on free and reduced
breakfasts and lunches five days a week. However, the
weekend creates a nutritional gap leaving many children
hungry when they return to school on Monday. Secret
Meals fills the gap these children experience by discretely
slipping into their backpack, on Friday’s, vitamin-fortified
and nutritional meals.
Alabama Credit Union created the Secret Meals For Hungry
Children program in 2008 with one goal in mind –
decreasing the number of children in Alabama and Florida
facing hunger over the weekend. Through partnerships with
local food banks, our commitment has never been stronger.
With one of the highest poverty rates in the country, 22
percent of both Alabama and Florida’s children live below
the poverty level. Currently, 2,312 students are receiving
Secret Meals food packs across the state of Alabama and
into Florida. To date, no school has been denied a request
to increase the number of children enrolled in the program.
$140 (on average) is the cost to provide a weekend food
pack to one child, identified as going hungry, for an entire
school year.
To allow as many children to receive food packs as possible,
Alabama Credit Union provides all promotional and operational
funding for the Secret Meals program, meaning 100 percent
of every penny donated goes toward the purchase of food
packs.