Schools, families, and children have traditionally been some of the biggest supporters of charitable causes within their own communities.  Hunger is a cause that children can understand and is easy for them to support.  As a result, many schools have organized community service efforts around collecting donations for local food pantries.

In order to support schools in these endeavors, Schools Serve, a new national nonprofit, launched today.  Their mission is to connect schools to the hunger cause and eradicating childhood hunger by creating the very first coordinated National School Food Drive campaign.

Schools Serve has ambitious goals built around a rather simple premise: schools can and will dramatically impact hunger in their hometown. With nearly 1 in 4 United States school children facing the realities of hunger and food insecurity this year, this is more important than ever.  Schools Serve will encourage and support the hunger efforts of K-12 schools across the country by offering a comprehensive food drive planning and promotional kit, sharing best practices, educational materials and creative ideas and celebrating the tens of thousands of schools rallying around the cause.

We know that kids can be great supporters of their communities.  Through Schools Serve, we can track how powerful they really are on one of the causes that matters the most.  Pretty cool.

Heather Jack is the Massachusetts Mom Congress Delegate and the Executive Director of The Volunteer Family and the Future Philanthropists program