10 Organizations to Support this Holiday Season

By: Kate McLaughlin

Many people around this time of year are looking for worthy organizations to support -- it is the "Giving Season" after all. There are many organizations, locally and globally, that support causes related to child nutrition, feeding hungry children, or combating malnutrition. Below is my list of the top 10 organizations (along with their missions) to help support their worthy causes!

UNICEF: Over eight decades, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has built an unprecedented global support system for the world’s children. UNICEF relentlessly works day in and day out to deliver the essentials that give every child an equitable chance in life: health care and immunizations, safe water and sanitation, nutrition, education, emergency relief and more. UNICEF USA advances the global mission of UNICEF by rallying the American public to support the world’s most vulnerable children. Together, we have helped save more children’s lives than any other humanitarian organization.
Feeding America: Our mission is to feed America’s hungry through a nationwide network of member food banks and engage our country in the fight to end hunger.
Action Against Hunger: As the world’s hunger specialist, our primary goal is to create a better way to deal with hunger. For more than 40 years, we have led the global movement that aims to end life-threatening hunger for good within our lifetimes. Our teams have been on the front lines, treating and preventing malnutrition across more than 45 countries.
River Food Pantry - Dane County: The River Food Pantry is Dane County’s busiest food pantry, offering free groceries, meals and mobile lunches to anyone who comes for help. Located in a warehouse just off Northport Drive and Packers Avenue, The River is surrounded by low-income neighborhoods and subsidized senior housing—exactly where we’re needed the most. We also provide a mobile lunch program for children and teens in low-income neighborhoods surrounding the food pantry. Nutritious packed lunches are distributed in the neighborhoods on weekends and other non-school days.
Second Harvest Madison: Second Harvest Foodbank exists to end hunger in southwestern Wisconsin. We work together with hundreds of local hunger-relief charities to provide the peace-of-mind people get when they know they have enough food. We are dedicated to providing healthy and nutritious food to those we serve. We are a member of Feeding America, a nationwide network of member food banks and the nation's largest domestic hunger-relief organization
GCNF: The Global Child Nutrition Foundation is a global network of governments, businesses, and civil society organizations working together to support school meal programs that help children and communities thrive. GCNF provides training, technical assistance, and networking opportunities to help governments build national school meal programs that are nutritious, locally-sourced, and ultimately independent from international aid.
School Lunch Fairy: We raise funds to set up emergency lunch funds at public schools across the nation so if a student does not have money that day our fund pays for their meal. We prefer to set up emergency lunch funds instead of paying down lunch debt. Unlike other fundraisers addressing this issue, we operate at a national level.
No Kid Hungry: No Kid Hungry is a national campaign run by Share Our Strength, a nonprofit working to solve problems of hunger and poverty in the United States and around the world. After 25 years of successfully investing in local nonprofits and helping find the best approaches to eradicating poverty and hunger, Share Our Strength launched No Kid Hungry in 2010.
United Way Dane County: United Way of Dane County has been tackling Dane County’s toughest challenges for 98 years. With a mission to unite the community to achieve measurable results and change lives, we are committed to build a Dane County where everyone can succeed in school, work and life. Through strategic partnerships and collaborative work, United Way brings the many voices of Dane County together to find common ground and develop a strategic architecture for change, while engaging businesses and individuals to give, advocate and volunteer in Dane County.
Mothers' Milk Alliance,Inc.: Mothers’ Milk Alliance was born in 2007 from the meeting of two mothers: one with extra breastmilk and one with low milk supply. Both dilemmas are common and have occurred throughout time. One timeless solution has been milk sharing. Shared breastmilk can optimize infant health and nutrition, while profoundly strengthening social bonds and community resilience. But many mothers do not know another breastfeeding woman or do not feel comfortable asking for such intimate help. Moreover, mothers want basic assurance that milk from another woman is safe. Their healthcare practitioners want this too.