In October 2011, Texas Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples launched the "No Kid Hungry Campaign" in Texas. Since the start of the campaign, Commissioner Staples has been working throughout the state to ensure its implementation. Most notably, he has been working very closely with State Senator Eddie Lucio, Jr., TX - District 27, to ensure its success in the Rio Grande Valley.

As part of the campaign, Commissioner Staples and Senator Lucio visited several sites throughout Cameron and Hidalgo County on Monday, July 9, 2012. One site visited by the campaign was the San Carlos Community Resource Center in Precinct 4, where over 100 children are receiving free breakfast and lunch throughout the summer. Precinct 4 Commissioner Joseph Palacios met with "No Kid Hungry Campaign" officials at the San Carlos CRC and gave a tour of the center. The San Carlos CRC works with the community year round to provide services and activities for children and families living in Precinct 4.

The San Carlos Community is one of the many who benefit from the campaign through a partnership with the state, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and grants from Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley, helping to ensure that no child in the community goes without a meal.

The Texas No Kid Hungry Campaign is a public-private partnership with the Texas Hunger Initiative, which is a project of Baylor University’s School of Social Work and the national children’s hunger organization Share Our Strength, which is providing $230,000 for the first year of the project. The initiative is also receiving support from Wal-Mart and from Maximus, a health and human services contractor. The Texas campaign is part of Share Our Strength’s national No Kid Hungry Campaign.

The partnership’s focus during its first year is to connect more eligible low-income children to federally funded school breakfasts and summer meals. According to the campaign's website, with school out for the summer, 17 million children across America are at greater risk of going hungry without access to the vital breakfast and school lunch programs they rely on during the academic year. Free summer meals are available to kids and teens age 18 and under at thousands of summer meal sites across the country.

Find out more about the "No Kids Hungry Campaign" by visiting www.strength.org/summer-meals!