In Conversation with Founder of Houston Children Give Back – Anika Jackson

With three Houston zip codes on the list of Ten Wealthiest Cities in Texas, it can be easy to forget the less fortunate. Houston Children Give Back is working hard to bridge that gap and create awareness, while also creating solutions to the problem. There are many opportunities to aid others, one took place in early March. LCA asked Anika Jackson, the woman with a plan, to get the details on their latest event and to find out the results and how Houston can help the less fortunate.

Can you give us a general overview of the event?

Houston Children Give Back builds charitable hearts by helping children learn about their world, appreciate the needs of others, and create positive change.

Our vision is to partner with the Houston community and charitable organizations to create hands-on learning opportunities for elementary aged and children as young as three to get involved and make a difference.

For this event, we strived to teach children about what hunger looks like internationally, and to make 10,000 meals to be deployed overseas. Over 20 families joined us on Saturday, March 7 at Stop Hunger Now‘s new Houston warehouse.

What was accomplished?

We met and exceeded our goal by making 10,152 meals!

Who was benefited?

Stop Hunger Now helps break the cycle of poverty for meal recipients through education, skills development and health care, while they also receive much-needed nutrition. The majority of their meals go to support school feeding, vocational training, early childhood development programs, as well as to orphanages and medical clinics.

Stop Hunger Now’s goals are to provide food and life-saving aid to support sustainable education and development programs, and to create a movement of educated volunteer advocates that are actively involved with poverty and hunger related issues.

How many years have you been holding this event? Are there any ways people can support this cause?

This was the first time that we had worked with Stop Hunger Now. Every new school year, Houston Children Give Back adds topics to our roster. This year, our topic is food insecurity. The event was so successful that we will likely repeat it. While attending families underwrote a small portion of the meals through their “family ticket” donations, Houston Children Give Back paid for 70% of the meals we made. To support Houston Children Give Back’s volunteer efforts, we are always accepting donations at our website: www.houstonchildrengiveback.org. Stop Hunger Now is always looking for volunteers to sponsor and create the meals as well.

How did you feel accomplishing this event?

It was great to see the generations come out for the event. We had everything from one year olds to grandparents at our event. We truly believe that learning to make a difference is a family activity. The fact that we reached and surpassed our goal made everyone feel proud of the job they did. Stop Hunger Now will be following up with all of the attendees to let us know where in the world the meals are sent.

This is certainly a worthy cause with a very passionate lady in charge. This Spring, it would do us all well to take a moment to first of all be thankful for all we have, but also to find ways to help others. Gratefulness and helping others isn’t just for Thanksgiving, as those from Houston Children Give Back clearly know!

Inputs by Natasha Naik