National Network Emerges to Feed Frontline COVID-19 Workers

Research says that bilingual kids reap significant benefits from reading in their primary language. One nonprofit working in Rwanda, Congo, Haiti, Cambodia, and Mongolia provides digital books in students' strongest language and recruits local writers to create age-level books with local context: "It's not just a matter of translating materials," a professor at Columbia's Teachers College notes. "It's a matter of valorizing the home culture and language of the learners."

Since 1995, Pragnachaksu has paved a path to empowerment for blind women in India, offering academic and vocational classes in addition to braille instruction. The school provides free housing and tuition for girls looking for primary and secondary education, a service that is usually unavailable to the country's eight million blind citizens, and to visually impaired women in particular.

The Kansas City school district and a group of local nonprofits are implementing a new software management system that will allow partners to access student data from a range of sources. The data-sharing agreement will paint a more holistic picture of students and, in the future, allow teachers and others to make informed interventions when appropriate.

Activists in Berkeley, California, are filling in what they say is a gap in homeless services during the coronavirus outbreak. Volunteers are safely delivering food and other supplies to those without shelter.

The Do-Good Auto Coalition in northern New Jersey is recruiting car dealerships and automakers to help shuttle supplies and food to people experiencing economic hardships during the COVID-19 pandemic. The closing of restaurants, schools, and other businesses has created a disconnect in the food supply chain, with fresh produce stuck on farms with no easy way to get it to consumers. While there’s no quick fix to reduce food waste, the organization is hopeful they can bridge the gap between farmers and people who can’t meet their basic needs.

Organizations across Wisconsin work in tandem to combat widespread hunger using a combination of fundraising, nonprofit supply, and low cost food delivery services. While organizations use different methods to accomplish their mission, they all work together to lower the rate of hunger in Wisconsin.

Want to help fight food insecurity? There’s an app for that. Food Rescue Hero helps connect extra food with those who need it. Volunteers use the app to see if any food is available and when it is, they pickup and deliver the donation to a pre-approved recipient, all through the app.

Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank battled food insecurity during the COVID-19 pandemic by distributing groceries directly to consumers rather than its previous role of supplying other charities. Ohio National Guard members helped distribute food using a contactless pickup line where they put bags of food in the trunks of cars. Hundreds, sometimes over 1,000 cars were served a day.

A Cup of Cold Water is a volunteer collaboration between four local Episcopal churches that has been providing assistance to residents who lost their homes in the recent wildfires through the group’s community outreach program. Since a day after the wildfires started on August 8, volunteers have driven a van around the island to distribute supplies like toiletries, food, clothing, bottled water and other necessities.

To reduce landfill use and greenhouse gas emissions while feeding those in need, New York’s food donation program requires big businesses to donate edible food to places like food banks instead of throwing it out.