New Hampshire Teens Provide Weekend Snacks and Meals to Hungry Peers

Fueled by Kids, a nonprofit founded and run by teens, provides bags of snacks and easy-to-prepare meals

In New Hampshire, one in 12 children face hunger, and families in the state reporting insufficient food leapt from 44% of respondents to 54% between February and April of 2023, according to Census pulse data. That’s about 50,000 more households struggling to put enough food on the table.

Fueled by Kids, a nonprofit founded and run by teenagers in Bedford, New Hampshire, fills the 67 hour gap between when students receive school lunch on Friday afternoons and again when they receive school breakfast on Monday morning, alleviating the food anxiety that many of these children experience as a result of not knowing when or where they might be having their next meal.

Each week, Fueled by Kids members gather for their club meeting at Bedford High School, then pick up food that they preordered from local grocers. They partner with other high schools to pack bags of groceries — all ready-to-eat or simple enough to be prepared by the students themselves — that then get distributed to more than 20 schools serving over 1,000 students. The recipients are all anonymous to Fueled by Kids organizers, identified by school counselors and principals as students who may face food insecurity over the weekend. All of Fueled by Kids’ funds raised go directly back to purchasing food for distribution.

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