MaChildrensFund.com Massachusetts Children's Fund
Title
Massachusetts Children's Fund
Description
Excerpted from the website description:
- Over 100,000 Massachusetts children lack adequate nutrition each and every day. Our goal is to fill these needs through direct donations of baby food, formula and supplies to local babies in need.
Our Mission Statement
The goal of the Massachusetts Children’s Fund is to fulfill the needs of thousands of underprivileged children across the Commonwealth of Massachusetts by using private donations to provide baby food, health and nutritional education, and other emergency services to those in need
We will achieve these objectives through 5 main pathways.
To raise funds through private and corporate donations, and available grant programs, to provide baby food and other supplies to children in need. The lack of baby food in Massachusetts is critical, and is contributing to undernourishment throughout the region on a daily basis. We pick up where state programs such as W.I.C., Food Stamps, and TAFDC fall short.
To spearhead grass roots volunteer efforts to work within their schools, social groups, or towns to run baby food drives on their own, and direct the supplies to us for distribution.
To organize volunteer workers, able to provide nutritional education, including information on child health, and proper prenatal care to visit local shelters and talk to parents. We need to educate teen mothers to understand that there is a difference between baby food, and a chopped up hotdog, fed to a 3 month old infant.
To provide a vehicle for the public donation of gently used cribs, gates, strollers, walkers, playpens, and other such supplies in the knowledge that many children wind up "in the DSS system" due to severe injuries that could have been avoided if the parents only had the proper equipment in the home - things they cannot afford to buy.
To set aside 5% of our assets to provide an emergency resource of a small pool of non-directed funds which can be directly distributed to children in dire emergency situations. We're there for the social workers to call on when they need "no questions asked" access to funds "outside the system."
Additional Information
Hunger in Massachusetts
In 2005, The Greater Boston Food Bank conducted the most comprehensive study on hunger in the state’s history. The study demonstrated that the number of people seeking food assistance in the Commonwealth increased 14% in 2005 vs 2001 (the year of the last study). Hunger is an increasingly serious problem in eastern Massachusetts and across the United States.
The Hunger in Eastern Massachusetts 2006 study was part of a national initiative lead by America's Second Harvest – The Nation’s Food Bank Network that conducted research nationally. The “Hunger Studies” are conducted every 4 years.
Key findings for eastern Massachusetts include:
14% more people (321,000 people in 2005) sought food assistance in 2005 than in 2001. About a third of the households receiving food assistance have a child under 18 years of age. Nearly a third say that their children are not eating enough because they couldn’t afford enough food. Many of those interviewed had to make unreasonable choices: 45% had to decide between food and heat. 39% had to decide between food and rent. 30% had to decide between food and medical care. The study also shows that there is no one face to hunger. 84% have a place to live. Over a third of the households served have one or more working adults. 46% of the clients are between 30 – 49 years old. 52% live in the suburbs. Nearly 2/3 are registered voters. Poverty and food insecurity are linked: Average monthly income of those receiving food assistance is below the Federal poverty level. $880 is the average monthly income; $12,210 is the average annual income. To read the Hunger In Eastern Massachusetts 2006 Executive Summary, download this pdf:
Source - Greater Boston Food Bank
