Kids Cafe

Second Harvest Inland Northwest targets child hunger with the Kids Cafe program in partnership with the Northeast Youth Center, West Central Community Center and Communities in Schools.

Second Harvest's three Kids Cafes provide hearty and healthy afternoon snacks for hundreds of low-income children. The Northeast Youth Center in Hillyard and the West Central Community Center both serve neighborhoods with a high density of low-income families. Communities in Schools offers after-school programs at Cheney Middle School, where 44 percent of students received free or reduced-price breakfast and lunch last year. There are also programs running in Spokane Valley and the Tri-Cities area.

Kids Cafe is a Feeding America program that targets child hunger by collaborating with select nonprofits that provide safe places where children congregate for recreation, tutoring and other activities. Second Harvest's three Kids Cafe sites, the first in the state of Washington, are part of a network of 1,700 throughout the nation. ConAgra Foods, a major funder of the nationwide program, provided the seed money to start Second Harvest's program in 2008 at the Northeast Youth Center. The Women Helping Women Fund of Spokane County supported the launch of the second Kids Cafe at the West Central Community Center in 2009. A grant from Albertsons is providing nutritious food supplies for all three Kids Cafe sites.

With the help of generous donors, Second Harvest can make a difference in the health and well-being of hundreds of at-risk children through the Kids Cafe program.