BENTONVILLE, Arkansas, June 13, 2012 /PRNewswire-HISPANIC PR WIRE/ -- Today the Walmart Foundation
announced more than $20 million in grants to six nonprofit organizations
nationwide that will create opportunities for children to enjoy smarter,
healthier and more productive summers. The grants will help expand nutrition,
learning and employment programs for elementary, middle and high school students
in 350 local communities throughout the 2012 summer months. Grant recipients
include YMCA of the USA (Y-USA), National Recreation and Park Association
(NRPA), National Summer Learning Association (NSLA), Innovations in Civic
Participation (ICP), Building Educated Leaders for Life (BELL) and Brandeis
University.
While most children look forward to the summer season, recent research shows
that young people's health may decline in the summer due to lower levels of
physical activity and lack of access to healthy meals. It is also
well-documented that children who do not engage in educational activities during
the summer months experience learning loss. Low-income children are particularly
vulnerable during the summer, reporting larger losses in health and academic
achievement during summer months compared to their higher income peers. For
older youth, nationwide economic challenges have also severely limited summer
job opportunities, which can be a source of supplemental income for families as
well as skills training that will prepare future workers.
"School may be out, but the need for healthy meals and engaging activity
continues during the summer," said Dr. Michele Borba, renowned children's health
and development expert and award-winning author of 22 parenting and educational
books, including Parents Do Make a Difference. "For children who lack
access to these essentials, summer can result in permanent set-backs in health
and academic achievement. Parents and caregivers of school-age children need to
be aware of this risk and look for opportunities in their communities to keep
kids healthy and engaged throughout the summer."
Specifically, the grants from Walmart and the Walmart Foundation will
provide:
- Healthy Meals: $6.5 million in funding to help Y-USA and the
NRPA expand their reach and provide more than 10 million meals to 160,000
children in low-income and underserved communities.
- Learning Programs: More than $8 million in grants to the
NSLA, ICP and BELL to support learning programs that will provide nearly
16,000 students with structured summer learning programs aimed to increase
learning, reading and classroom participation when school is back in session.
- Summer Jobs: $5 million in grants will support youth
employment programs and provide access to job opportunities and academic
enrichment to nearly 3,000 inner-city youth in Phoenix, Ariz.; New York, N.Y.;
Hartford, Conn.; Philadelphia, Pa.; Chicago, Ill.; Detroit, Mich.; and Los
Angeles, Calif. The summer jobs initiative is led by Brandeis
University.
The Summer Jobs grant responds to the call-to-action issued by President
Obama for the private and public sectors to join the Administration in helping
to address record unemployment among America's youth. This initiative, called
Summer Jobs+, challenges business leaders and communities to work together to
create summer jobs and other employment opportunities for low-income youth this
year. A report issued by the White House Council for Community
Solutions finds that increased collaboration between governments, grant makers
and nonprofits is important for educating and preparing young people for jobs.
"Summer is a critical time for the continued health and development of our
nation's youth," said Sylvia Mathews Burwell, president of the Walmart
Foundation. "We know that providing access to meals, learning programs and job
opportunities during the summer months will enable kids to return to school
healthy, prepared and ready to succeed. By working closely with our nonprofit
partners, we can help kids have better summers and ultimately, better
lives."
Walmart's summer meals grants are part of a $2 billion commitment by Walmart
and the Walmart Foundation to fight hunger in the U.S. through 2015. For
additional information on the summer programs that Walmart is supporting and to
learn more about how Walmart is fighting hunger visit http://www.walmart.com/fightinghunger/.
About Philanthropy at Walmart
Walmart and the Walmart
Foundation are proud to support initiatives that are helping people live better
around the globe. In May 2010, Walmart and its Foundation made a historic pledge
of $2 billion through 2015 to fight hunger in the U.S. The Walmart Foundation
also supports education, workforce development, environmental sustainability,
and health and wellness initiatives. To learn more, visit http://www.walmartfoundation.org/.
SOURCE Walmart Foundation
