FRESH HEALTHY FOOD ACCESSIBLE TO KIDS ALL YEAR LONG
Fresh, healthy food is expensive and difficult for low-income families to access. During the school year, thousands of children rely on free school breakfast and lunch programs for nutritious meals. However, during the summer, children need to find meals from other sources. One innovative way to get food to hungry kids is through mobile food trucks, which make stops at libraries, parks, and community centers in high-need neighborhoods. The mobile food trucks are supported by Second Harvest Heartland, the Midwest’s largest food bank and hunger relief organization.
The Olseth Family Foundation is delighted to fund Second Harvest Heartland’s work to address child hunger, which is reaching kids and families through a variety of creative strategies. In 2015, Second Harvest Heartland helped provide two million meals to Minnesota children at over 700 sites throughout the summer months.
PLANNED PARENTHOOD’S TEEN COUNCIL
Planned Parenthood’s Teen Council is an intensive year-long, youth development program that trains 15-19 year-old students in the Minnesota cities of Duluth, Rochester, Minneapolis and St. Paul, to become leaders in promoting reproductive health among their peers.
The three primary focus areas are education, advocacy, and service.
Each participating teen will become a peer educator, building skills, competence, and knowledge about sexual health topics. Throughout the academic year, the 30-40 Teen Council members will provide nearly 1000 peers with accurate health information. In addition, peer educators contribute to their communities in many other ways, such as giving formal classroom presentations, participating in community service projects, and advocating for reproductive rights.
National teen pregnancy and birth rates are at historic lows. The teen pregnancy rate has dropped by 51% since its highest levels in 1990, and the teen birth rate dropped a full 41% between 2006 and 2014. This decline is associated with delayed initiation of sex and better use of effective contraception. But more specifically, Minnesota has one of the lowest teen birth rates in the nation, at 16.1 per 1,000 young women aged 15 to 29.
The Olseth Family Foundation aspires for an even greater reduction in the above data as we provide financial support to this wonderful program, which provides voice to accurate, developmentally appropriate and culturally responsive reproductive healthcare.
