Go a day without a meal or two and you know the fuzzy, “head in the clouds,� feeling; unable to focus, lightheaded, and slow moving. I take a brisk walk around the office cubicle maze and see desks mounded with water bottles, ziploc baggies stuffed with crackers, a stack of fresh fruit, and a scattering of mysterious crumbs… all in the efforts to fuel bodies and encourage brain power!

  Personally, my desk drawer is typically stocked with brain food. Did I mention that my paper-like fingernails are now long & strong, all because I keep fruit and a bottle of vitamins in “said� drawer? My own forgetfulness and busy mommy shopping delays are the only excuses for desk-handy fuel shortages around here. The effects are tremendous, and I now gleefully paint my nails in a variety of celebratory colors. Oh yes, and I know I work more effectively too!

  The effects of proper daily nutrition are profound, and regrettably so is the magnitude of the damage done when nutrition is lacking… and even more so for developing children. The households lacking in valuable nutrition are increasing in nationwide poverty statistics. Forget about my mere issues of forgetfulness and busyness… there are 15.5 million, poverty-stricken kids in America. I never knew the reality of daily hunger in the school system, until I read this article. The results of, “Share our Strength’s,� Teacher’s Report on Hunger, are sobering;

65% of K-8 teachers see students coming to school hungry because they are not eating at home, and 61% of those teachers use their own money each month to buy food supplies for the hungry children in their class. Overall, six in ten teachers say hunger in the classroom increased last year.

  Three of my four children are in that age range, and I wonder, “Can hunger issues be a recognizable issue in their schools, and with kids they know? And if so, how do we find them? When we find them, how do we help them?�  We don’t check the strength of their fingernails, or count the daily accumulation of their personal food pyramid. What we do know is that all children should have access to nourishing foods. No child should go without.  This is where Donate Fruit® and you step in…

                         At our most recent fruit donation at an elementary school we donated 600 pears…healthy, sweet, fiber-rich pears.  The receiving line rushed on by with busy children, but as I looked at the video footage later something caused me to rewind and watch it over and over.  Three little girls of about six years old walked by in an orderly fashion. They quietly took their pears and then snuggled them into their arms, cradling them like infant babes.  Another video clip showed an older child triumphantly holding her fruit up in the air to show her friends, shouting, “Look, I got one too!�  There was a school full of brain power that day! 

  When Donate Fruit® was established in 2009, the premise was to donate fresh and nutritious fruit…and a lot of it. In 2010 over 1.8 Million pounds went across the country into food banks that needed it the most, and into schools for all of the children; the well fed & those lacking a nutritious diet. We will continue to donate more fruit each year, and give ample opportunities for others to join in the cause. Because the need is real… we aim to give others tangible ways to put that nutrition into the hands of those that are without it.  No doubt there is a need even here in America, and in the schools where our own children attend.  We will make premium orchard fruit and gourmet gifts available for your everyday purchases and gifts, and together we can Donate Fruit® to Feed the Need™.