Mission

Kids' Food Basket nourishes kids to reach their full potential. Underpinning our mission is the core belief that healthy food is a right; we exist to break down barriers and increase access to healthy, nourishing food so that children and families thrive. Our goal is to realize future generations of healthy West Michigan citizens, because we know that healthy people have a higher quality of life and are better able to realize their potential, provide for their families, engage as productive members of the workforce, and contribute to their community.

What We Do

Through our holistic, sustainable, community-driven farming and educational programming, we convene and catalyze our community towards realizing a hunger-free West Michigan. With our neighbors as our chief collaborators, we aim to provide the gold standard model for pursuing food equity in a way that leverages, promotes, and celebrates the power and passion of the local community. We address the immediate food needs of our most vulnerable neighbors by providing daily access to nourishing food, while our comprehensive strategy addresses education surrounding the root causes of hunger.

Programmatically, Kids' Food Basket identifies meeting immediate hunger needs and providing food education as important interventions that ensure health for children in our community. But we don't stop there. We intervene on various points across the system with four strategic levers of change that correspond to the programs. Our levers of change:

NOURISH: We will feed our future by providing nutritious, ready-to-eat food on a daily basis to children in need.

GROW: We will increase healthy food access for our communities through the growth and distribution of sustainably grown vegetables and fruits on our 10-acre chemical-free, sustainable farmland.

LEARN: We will use our facilities and farm as classrooms to foster hands-on learning and empowerment across economic barriers.

ENGAGE: We will host our diverse community to work for Good Food for all through online and volunteer engagement experiences and a leadership volunteerism model.