A nonprofit provides dinners to at-risk and houseless youths.
Most families are aware that qualifying students attending schools in the Washoe County School District receive two meals per school day, breakfast and lunch, on campus free of charge. But many of these children who live in low-income households still don’t have access to nutritious dinners when they’re not in school. The challenge is to ensure children are getting enough food outside of school hours.
That’s why Ray Roske and Steve Johnson started The Third Meal, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that provides gift cards to children who are at risk or experiencing homelessness, giving them the ability to buy dinners when food may not otherwise be available. The motto of the nonprofit is “dine with dignity,” and the goal for the founders was to replace the “walk of shame” — the trip to pick up blue backpacks full of weekend food made available in school auditoriums — with something less obvious but just as helpful. Instead, qualifying students are given physical gift cards or QR codes that they can use for dining at local restaurants. Currently, The Third Meal serves 30 families in Reno. The goal is to grow its reach throughout the Reno-Tahoe region to match those of the organization’s other sites, which serve about 300 students in the Denver, Colo., area and 200 in Oklahoma.
Finding Funding and Recipients
To make the program work, Roske, who works for technology giant Oracle, and Johnson, who is a minister in Portland, Ore., receive matching donations from Oracle and other corporations as well as through giving campaigns shared via Facebook, LinkedIn, and word of mouth. Through seasonal fundraisers, The Third Meal is able to give Reno families a combined total of about $600 per month. The program works best when a local restaurant or another business offers to match that amount, something the owners of Great Full Gardens restaurants in Reno and Sparks did for The Third Meal’s launch.
“It has been widely identified that students living in poverty rely on school breakfasts and lunches as their primary sources of daily food intake,” says BJ Foster, the women’s ministry leader at Greater Reno Church of Christ in Reno, who works as a student advocate within the school district. “The primary goal of The Third Meal is to provide that crucial third meal to students who would otherwise go hungry for the next 15 to 20 hours between lunch and breakfast the following day.”
As the senior program director of the nonprofit Communities In Schools of Western Nevada, Foster’s goal is to keep youths in schools and help them graduate. Having nutritious meals is directly correlated. In fact, Roske says both attendance and test scores have improved within the served population since The Third Meal began operating locally.
Currently, recipients are identified by Foster, and then monthly gift cards are doled out as funds allow, in $100 increments, with a goal of finding additional funds and more partner restaurants to grow the amount of assistance the organization can provide.
“There are many wonderful community programs providing support, but, unfortunately, they are met with reservation, as families are called to choose between survival and dignity,” Foster explains. “The freedom to walk into a restaurant and order off the menu like anyone else without shame or worry of the inability to pay allows both.”
The Third Meal
Thethirdmeal.org
