Nonprofit fighting child hunger leaves lasting impact on Zimmerman family
Through the end of the year, a Minnesota nonprofit that provides hunger relief to children is matching donations to help support its mission.
Every Meal serves about 375 schools across the state by providing meals to kids on weekends.
For one Zimmerman family, they know first-hand the impact of this program.
“You don’t know what a family is going through, a lot of people are scared to ask,” said Nicole Heinz, who has been a part of the Every Meal program since 2021.
Heinz has six kids and her husband works two jobs. She says feeding everyone can be a challenge.
“It’s $500 a week just to do meal preps and it’s brutal,” Heinz said.
That’s where Rob Williams and Every Meal are helping out.
“We all have different roles to play at different times and we all need support at different points in our lives,” said Williams, founder and president of Every Meal.
The Roseville nonprofit fills the gap students face on weekends when they don’t have access to school meals. They deliver boxes of food at school and discretely put it in their bag to take home.
“There’s so many kids facing food insecurity here in the state of Minnesota,” Williams said.
Heinz has been using the Every Meal program since 2021.
“My kiddos brought home a bag, and that just made life easier knowing I wasn’t alone,” Heinz said. “It sends out a good message that people are out there to help.”
Every Meal is 100% community-funded and serves nearly 400 Minnesota schools, but Williams says their waiting list is growing.
“There’s 181 more schools that have said can you help us, can you serve the kids in our school and we aren’t able yet to serve those kids because of the cost of food and needing to have donations to fund that,” Williams said.
This holiday season, Heinz is grateful for Every Meal and all those who support the mission to fight child hunger. She is also thankful it gives her and her family a better life.
“Crazy and wonderful at the same time, I wouldn’t change any of it,” Heinz said.
For more information on Every Meal’s mission and to donate, click here.