FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 28, 2021
Contact name: Rebekah Hall Scott
Organization: Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance
Phone: (501) 399-9999
Email: rhall@arhungeralliance.org
AR No Kid Hungry announces awards for Books, Breakfast and Beyond Challenge 2021
LITTLE ROCK, AR (April 28, 2021) – The Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance’s No Kid Hungry campaign is pleased to announce our winners of the 2021 Books, Breakfast and Beyond Challenge. We want to recognize the heroic efforts of these and all of our Arkansas school nutrition teams across the state, who worked hard to find solutions to provide nutritious meals to their students throughout the pandemic.
For the last ten years, the Alliance has partnered with the Arkansas Governor’s office and school nutrition advocates to proclaim March as School Breakfast Month and challenge school districts to increase school breakfast participation during the month of March. As Governor Asa Hutchinson proclaimed, “The School Breakfast Program plays a key role in ensuring that Arkansas students are healthy, active and ready to learn every day so they can reach their full academic potential.”
This year, we asked districts to share their success stories about the innovative ways they continued to deliver meals to their students during the pandemic. Whether those meal deliveries took place in the classroom, in reconfigured school dining areas, through grab and go meals, multiple meal boxes, bus stop or even home deliveries, over 90% of Arkansas school districts managed to continue to provide this vital nutrition support to their kids beginning last March — compared to about 30% of districts nationwide, according to the AR Department of Education.
For the Books, Breakfast and Beyond Challenge, we asked school districts to share their stories describing the creative ways they continued to serve meals to students throughout the pandemic. Participating schools were eligible to win dollars for their child nutrition programs by submitting a short essay and photo describing their meal service during the pandemic.
We are pleased to announce these winners of the 2021 Books, Breakfast and Beyond Challenge*:
First Prize: Monticello School District
- $1,500 cash prize and $1,000 book purchase gift certificate
Second Prize: Lonoke School District
- $1,000 cash prize and $750 book purchase gift certificate
Third Prize: Batesville School District
- $500 cash prize and $500 book purchase gift card
Honorable Mention:
- White Hall, Forrest City, Cedar Ridge and Heber Springs school districts will each receive $500 for their child nutrition departments
* Cash prizes for winning districts’ child nutrition departments sponsored by Midwest Dairy Council, book purchase gift certificates sponsored by the Arkansas Humanities Council.
We congratulate all the remaining Books, Breakfast and Beyond Challenge participants: Ashdown, DeQueen, Glen Rose, Graduate Arkansas, Inc., Harrisburg, Lincoln, Mayflower, Mansfield, Mena, Siloam Springs, South Conway, Strong-Huttig, and Trumann school districts. All participants, including the winners noted above, will receive a thermal milk crate, thermometers and recipe cards, also sponsored by Midwest Dairy Council.
Thank you to our Books, Breakfast and Beyond Challenge partners — Governor Asa Hutchinson’s office, Arkansas Department of Education’s Division of Elementary and Secondary Education Child Nutrition Unit and Reading Initiative for Student Excellence (RISE) team, Arkansas Humanities Council, Excel by Eight, Arkansas PBS, and Midwest Dairy Council — for again supporting the Challenge and highlighting the frontline efforts of school district nutrition workers and the innovative steps they took since the beginning of the pandemic to ensure their students received the nutritious meals they needed to succeed and to thrive.
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About Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance
Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance, lead partner in Arkansas for the No Kid Hungry campaign, is a non-profit collaborative network of more than 520 hunger relief organizations across Arkansas. Our founding members include the Arkansas Foodbank in Little Rock, the Food Bank of Northeast Arkansas in Jonesboro, Harvest Regional Food Bank in Texarkana, Food Bank of North Central Arkansas in Norfork, Northwest Arkansas Food Bank in Bethel Heights and River Valley Regional Food Bank in Fort Smith. The Alliance is a collaborative organization that works on behalf of Arkansans facing hunger. We invite you to visit ARhungeralliance.org for details on hunger relief programs, volunteer opportunities and donor information.
About Arkansas No Kid Hungry campaign
Share Our Strength’s No Kid Hungry campaign connects kids in need with effective nutrition programs like school breakfast, summer and afterschool meals and teaches their families how to cook healthy, affordable meals on a budget. The campaign works across the nation and in Arkansas to surround children with healthy food where they live, learn and play. The Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance is the lead partner for the No Kid Hungry campaign in Arkansas. Visit www.arhungeralliance.org/programs/no-kid-hungry/ for more information.
About Excel by Eight
Since 2011, Excel by Eight has been known as the Arkansas Campaign for Grade-Level Reading with a mission to ensure all children read at grade level at the end of third grade. With the support of our more than 30 partner organizations, AR-GLR has proudly received national-recognition for our work to help improve parent and community engagement, school readiness, classroom instruction, attendance, and summer learning. But we recognize there’s more progress to be made. That’s why we’re renaming our efforts to help all children, starting from birth, meet their full educational and health potential, with Excel by Eight. Excel by Eight is focused on building a reliable resource grid, where all Arkansas families and communities have what they need to help children thrive.
About Arkansas Humanities Council
The purpose of the Arkansas Humanities Council is to promote understanding, appreciation, and use of the humanities in Arkansas. To achieve its purpose, the council awards through a competitive process to nonprofit groups and organizations that allow them to plan and con-duct projects in the humanities for Arkansas audiences. Learn more at arkansashumanitiescouncil.org
About R.I.S.E. Arkansas
R.I.S.E. (Reading Initiative for Student Excellence) Arkansas encourages a culture of reading by coordinating a statewide reading campaign with community partners, parents, and teachers to establish the importance of reading in homes, schools, and communities. It offers a variety of resources to assist parents with reading at home and to increase the depth of knowledge for teachers. Goal 1: Sharpen the focus and strengthen instruction. Goal 2: Create community collaboration. Goal 3: Build a culture of reading!
About Midwest Dairy
Midwest Dairy Council represents 7,000 dairy farm families and works on their behalf to build dairy demand by inspiring consumer confidence in our products and production practices. We are committed to Bringing Dairy to Life! by Giving Consumers an Excellent Dairy Experience and are funded by farmers across a 10-state region, including Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Arkansas, and eastern Oklahoma. Midwest Dairy is dedicated to dairy nutrition research and education and is committed to child health and wellness through our collaborative program, Fuel Up to Play 60.
About Arkansas PBS
Arkansas PBS is the only statewide media network. The agency enhances lives by providing lifelong learning opportunities for people from all walks of life. Arkansas PBS delivers local, award-winning productions and classic, trusted PBS programs aimed at sharing Arkansas and the world with viewers through the distinct channels PBS, Create, AETN PBS KIDS, World and AIRS on SAP. Audiences can also watch on several digital platforms, and members with Arkansas PBS Passport have extended on-demand access to a rich library of public television programming. ArkansasIDEAS offers free, on-line professional development for all Arkansas educators through Arkansas PBS. The Arkansas Citizens Access Network (AR-CAN) livestreams state government board and commission meetings are administered by Arkansas PBS. The statewide network of six towers serves as the backbone of the Arkansas Early Warning System for the state during emergencies. All of these services depend on the generosity of Arkansans and the State of Arkansas.