Feeding Children Everywhere recently held its second annual Impact Breakfast on Nov. 1. They discussed a new project called Full Cart that had been launched on Sept. 1. Full Cart is a grocery kit designed to feed the hungry and is delivered straight to their doors. All a family has to do is pay for shipping.
Christina Tineo is the vice president of people and culture for Feeding Children Everywhere, a nonprofit organization with a mission to end world hunger. She’s had this position for seven years. She says when they first started out, there were six of them in the back of a tiny warehouse. They knew they wanted to feed people, and over the years they’ve seen it grow and impact millions of people. They now have six different offices in the U.S.
I interviewed Tineo on the new project called Full Cart and was able to gain insight on what it is all about.
BB: When was Full Cart launched?
CT: There was a pilot program called Fed 40 that was launched first, actually. It turned into Full Cart. Full Cart is the 2.0 version of what Fed 40 was. The new Full Cart was launched this past summer.
BB: What makes Full Cart so different from other approaches?
CT: I think the thing that makes full cart different and special and unlike any other food aid program is, first off, the demographics that it’s targeting. A lot of people are obviously in need, but the demographic that we’re really shooting for is one that gets overlooked quite often because they’re hard-working Americans. Maybe they have even two, three jobs, maybe they don’t even qualify for some of the benefits such as SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program), but they’re still very much in need. They are consistently, month to month, having issues where they don’t know how they’re going to feed their family. That’s the person we’re really trying to help. They need a break because life is expensive, schooling is expensive, food is expensive, so we’re trying to help that group by giving them more affordable options when it comes to feeding a family.
BB: If you’re not a part of a family, can you still benefit from your service?
CT: Absolutely, yes. Individuals, families, it’s really open to all people. There’s really not any stipulations to it.
BB: Full Cart was valued at $40 and is now valued at $80. What are some of the items included inside?
CT: There are multiple different meal options. What we try to do is poll our audience and say, “What are some items that you want to see, and what are some of the items that would really help stretch your grocery budget?” Some of the top things people said is, “Give me a Hamburger Helper-type of meal. Give us a mac and cheese that my kids will eat without question.” We’ve got a lot of feedback from that, and then we developed what we put into the meal. We’ve got a jambalaya which is so healthy, so delicious, and packed full of protein. It has dehydrated vegetables in it. We’ve got a pasta meal for them to make. We’ve got a soup mix they could make. We’ve got a breakfast option with some oats. We have our version of Hamburger Helper, which is called Hamburger Hero. We’re in the process of adding a mashed potato side. We want main courses, side options, breakfast options, kids’ options. Month to month, it will look a little different. We always add new items to it to spice it up and give people a variety.
BB: Can this be delivered to people’s doors?
CT: Yes, so that’s the cool thing about the Full Cart program. They order online in an online form, and the food is delivered right to their door. For a lot of people, it’s hard for them to get to a food bank, for a lot of reasons, maybe because they’re embarrassed or maybe because food banks are only open during working hours. Whatever the reason is, we wanted to make it very easy and very convenient.
BB: How can someone volunteer for Feeding Children Everywhere?
CT: Go to our website at feedingchildreneverywhere.com, and some of the best help they can do is donate because that’s going to go straight to feeding people. As far as using their time, we have tons of packaging options that we call “Hunger Projects” where people can come to our facility, they can sign up online and look through the different open opportunities if there are community projects we have available for them. They can always host a Hunger Project themselves.
Feeding Children Everywhere began in 2010 and is a nonprofit organization that has packaged 100 million meals overseas and at home. Go to feedingchildreneverywhere.com to learn more.