If you were at the food bank today, you didn’t have to look far to find Sesame Street! Elmo and Cookie Monster came out to help raise awareness about childhood hunger.
Sesame Workshop, Sesame Street’s nonprofit organization, visited the CAFB to launch the Food for Thought: Eating Well on a Budget initiative – a bilingual multimedia outreach project designed to help families with small children access affordable and nutritious food.
Award-Winning Chef Art Smith conducted a cooking demonstration and got a little help from Elmo and a new Sesame character, Broccoli, who is part of the latest “Superfoods” Muppets. Children from our partner agencies Agape, CASA de Maryland and Israel Metropolitan CME Church made for an exciting audience as they sampled the treats.
The contents of the Food for Thought initiative were unveiled during the event with remarks by the food bank’s own Lynn Brantley; Kevin Concannon, USDA Under Secretary for Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services; Gary Knell, president and CEO, Sesame Workshop;
Russell Petrella, Ph.D, president , UnitedHealthcare Community & State; and Richard Clark, chairman and CEO, Merck.
The 400,000 Food for Thought kits will be distributed through Feeding America, UnitedHealthcare, The Merck Foundation, National WIC Association, Head Start, Meals on Wheels and other key organizations.
