We Cancerve Launches Family Meal Kit Project With Major Donation

Bel Air, Md. – The We Cancerve Movement, Inc. provided healthy, family meal kits to Anna’s House last week as part of a new initiative called "Spork'd" the youth-led nonprofit created. Thanks to a $2,000 grant from Hormel Foods, the youth group plans to help more shelters.

The grant is part of ongoing support to We Cancerve from the global branded food company. In September, Hormel Foods honored We Cancerve Founder Grace Callwood with a 10 Under 20 Food Hero award for her efforts to fight food insecurity and help those in need.

“I am humbled by Hormel’s continued support of our programs, and the timing is perfect because we were already committed to teaming with Anna’s House on this initiative but now, just as we are getting started, we have additional funding and can expand our reach to others in need,” said Callwood, 16, a sophomore in Edgewood High School’s Global Studies International Baccalaureate Programme. “During holiday breaks, children who receive free and reduced meals are more vulnerable to food insecurity. Because of Covid-19, the number of children affected has increased so it feels good to make an immediate impact.”

According to the USDA, more than 11 million children lived in food-insecure households before the Covid-19 pandemic. By the end of 2020, the nonprofit Feeding America expects that number to rise to 17 million children.

Anna’s House, one of about 80 programs in the region affiliated with Catholic Charities of Baltimore, provides multiple services to families experiencing homelessness, domestic violence and other issues that cause them need shelter.

Like many transitional housing programs, Anna’s House requires its residents to participate in life-skills courses which include family budgeting, job readiness and cooking. These courses are designed to reduce recidivism. Because of Covid-19, these often in-person courses are now offered virtually at Anna’s House. Other shelters are not able to sustain routine virtual courses.

The family meal kits, an idea introduced by Jennifer Crosson, the resources development manager at Anna’s House, is an alternative We Cancerve embraced.

“I love that others can benefit for our ‘dreaming out loud’ idea,” Crosson said. “I think, especially in this Covid world, [the meal kits] can help teach basic cooking skills which is a life skill that will stay with our families forever!”

Callwood named the new project Spork'd to signify the importance of providing families with meals they can eat with a spoon or fork. She hopes in doing so, the meal boxes will contain healthy food choices.

She and members of her board of advisors Samantha Bowling, 14, and Ashlee Brockwell, 15, picked their favorite family recipes, worked with their in-house designer to develop recipe cards then shopped for all of the ingredients required for the meals that they packed into individual boxes to resemble Hello Fresh or Blue Apron kits. They even included cooking essentials like measuring cups and aluminum foil in boxes they packed.

Bowling, an eighth grader at Patterson Mill Middle School, said she chose the Easy Chicken Dinner recipe because “it is a super yummy meal and simple to make. When I make it, I get to have fun with the slicing and seasoning, and I don't have to wait a long time for my food. This makes a very delicious meal!” Her meal is packed with fresh vegetables.

Brockwell, a sophomore at Patterson Mill High School, chose Cheesy Bacon Breakfast Casserole because it’s her family’s Christmas morning tradition. She said “We have done it for as long as I can remember. I will continue this tradition with my own family!” Canned peaches were included with Brockwell’s meal.

Callwood included a sandwich she loves from her mom’s kitchen – a homemade, deli-fresh, corned beef Reuben – along with hand-cut fries with just a pinch of salt.

We Cancerve was started in 2012 when Callwood was seven to bring happiness to homeless, sick and foster children -- all youth in sad situations through no fault of their own. To date, the nonprofit has reached more than 22,000 youth from Maryland to Namibia at nine hospitals; 10 homeless shelters and transitional programs; three foster care group home and three orphanages.

In 2016, Callwood created Breakfast Bags Bonanza to provide individual breakfast meals to homeless and foster children during the Thanksgiving and Winter breaks. By December 2019, the nonprofit had donated 5,684 bags. In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, Callwood developed the Brunch Box to provide a week’s worth of complete meals this summer to families of homeless, foster and otherwise food-insecure families enrolled at two Title I public elementary schools in Harford County. We Cancerve serviced 310 people with an estimated 1,550 meals. In addition, they donated a few hundred more meals to Hackerman-Patz House in Baltimore to help families sitting bed side of loved ones at nearby hospitals.

Callwood is a 2016 Nickelodeon HALO Award Honoree, the 2019 World of Children Youth Honoree, 2019 Gloria T. Barron Prize for Young Heroes, 2019 CNN Young Wonder, 2020 Cartoon Network Black History Spotlight and a 2020 Hormel Food Hero.

For more information about We Cancerve or to donate to our next Spork'd boxes, contact us at peoplewhocare@wecancerve.org.

This article originally appeared on the Bel Air Patch