Kids' Meals Kicks Off Annual Juice Box Challenge Initiative
Today marks the start of Kids' Meals' annual Juice Box Challenge! For those of you who aren't familiar, the Juice Box Challenge is a summer-long initiative where teams from across Houston come together to collect 100% juice boxes for Kids' Meals' daily lunch deliveries.
On a typical day, Kids’ Meals serves 6,700 meals to preschool-aged children (ages 5 and under) who do not have access to free school-based meal programs. In the summer, that number more than doubles as Kids' Meals not only feeds preschool-aged children but ALL school-aged siblings in the home. This summer, Kids' Meals needs your help to deliver over 730,000 free, healthy meals to the doorsteps of Houston’s hungriest children between May 1 – July 31.
That means Kids' Meals needs 730,000 sandwiches, 730,000 bags, 730,000 fruit snacks, and 730,000 juice boxes. Each summer, teams of compassionate people around the Greater Houston Area compete to help collect juice boxes (100% juice).
Create Your Team
Many kinds of teams compete in the Summer Juice Box Challenge. From corporations, department competitions, places of worship, schools, friends, workout groups, small businesses, the possibilities are endless! No group is too big or too small to join the Juice Box Challenge.
Set Up Your Donation Platform (Virtual and/or In-Person)
To collect virtually, set up your page with a free account through You Give Goods starting April 15, 2023. The juice box options are all approved, and your team’s page can be customized and shared with friends, family, and co-workers. People can donate from anywhere and You Give Goods ships all the juice boxes your team collected directly to Kids' Meals.
Promote Your Drive
Hang fliers around the office, send out emails, share the link to your You Give Goods drive on your social media accounts, and use whatever other creative ideas you produce to make your drive as successful as possible. As you tell others your progress compared to other teams, FRIENDLY trash talk is encouraged.
Use these free promotional materials
Schedule Your Drop-Off
Schedule a time to drop off the juice boxes you collected. Please provide us with 5 days’ notice to ensure your totals are added correctly and your photos are taken.
Want to compete for the “Best in Show” prize? Set up a fun and creative drop-off that wows our team (we have had teams on horseback, dressed as The Village People, with police escort, choreographed dances, and much more!) Drop-off times are Monday-Friday between 9am - 2pm.
If you are collecting using YOU GIVE GOODS, you get to skip this step!
About Kid's Meals
Since 2006, Kids’ Meals has been making and delivering free, healthy meals directly to the homes of hungry children. Since inception, Kids' Meals have given more than 10.3 million free meals to food insecure children in 46 zip codes in Harris County and Montgomery County. Kids’ Meals is a first-responder to children ages 5 and under facing debilitating hunger due to extreme poverty.
Their mission is to end childhood hunger by delivering free healthy meals to the doorsteps of Greater Houston’s hungriest preschool-aged children and through collaboration provide their families with resources to help end the cycle of poverty.
Kids’ Meals is the only program of its kind in the nation, and Houstonians built this program right along with them. What began as two delivery vans has grown into a fleet of 13 vans sharing not just food, but connection to more than 50 wrap-around service partners who are here to help families break the poverty cycle. But it all begins with growing healthier children, which is why Kids' Meals is laser-focused on feeding children age 5 and under who don’t have access to free school-based meals. Harris County is home to more than 50,000 preschool-aged children living in food insecurity. Kids' Meals' goal is to be feeding 26,000 children per day by 2031. We believe Houston can be the first city to end childhood hunger.
To learn more about Kids' Meals, please visit kidsmealsinc.org.
Source: Kids' Meals
