On April 17th the Montgomery County Food Council, in partnership with the Office of Food Systems Resilience, hosted a kick-off event for the End Childhood Hunger Collaborative. We were joined by special guests State Delegate Emily Shetty, County Executive Marc Elrich, and Councilmember Gabe Albornoz, as well as 80 guests from the community. We would like to thank those organizations, including food assistance providers and other community organizations serving children and families experiencing food insecurity, Montgomery County Government, the Department of Health and Human Services, Montgomery County Public Schools, healthcare organizations, local universities, and policy and advocacy organizations, who came out to learn and show their support for this important initiative.
The purpose of the End Childhood Hunger Collaborative is to mobilize community-wide efforts towards the implementation of the recommendations outlined in the Strategic Plan to End Childhood Hunger (Full plan/2-page summary), which seeks to address the needs of the 34,000 children experiencing, and the 76,000 children at risk of experiencing, food insecurity in Montgomery County. This plan was developed by the Montgomery County Food Council through an extensive engagement process with key stakeholders from community organizations, County government, Montgomery County Public Schools, and residents, and released by the County Council in September 2023. 
The event provided the community with an opportunity to learn about the work taking place to support specific plan initiatives including (view the agenda and presentation slides from the event):
- $3.3M in County funding both recently awarded and to be made available in the near future through the Office of Food Systems Resilience to support School-Based Food Assistance Resources and SNAP Benefits Outreach initiatives, Food As Medicine, Resident & Community Gardening, and a Retail Food Access Pilot.
- Convenings led by the Food Council that support stakeholder coordination efforts related to specific End Childhood Hunger initiatives including School-Based Food Assistance Resources, SNAP Outreach Programs, and Resident & Community Gardening; as well as its long-standing Food Security Security Community and Food Systems Advocacy convenings.
- Highlights of work taking place in the community to directly serve children and their families including the Cresthaven Elementary School Pantry (supported by the Capital Area Food Bank), and the DHHS Community Action Navigators that will work directly with MCPS sites to connect families to SNAP and other assistance programs.
We will continue to track the plan’s implementation and look forward to sharing more information about our work toward the plan’s recommendations in partnership with key community stakeholders. Thank you to all who attended and participated in this kickoff event! For more information, please contact Annmarie Hart-Bookbinder at annmarie@mocofoodcouncil.org.
