How It Works

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Dine for No Kid Hungry is a guest-supported, fundraising campaign from No Kid Hungry. When your customers dine out with you, you can make a difference for the 1 in 7 kids who struggles with hunger. Through a customized, valuable promotion that you design with our support, you’ll be doing well while doing good for kids all across America. Join us and learn how you can stand out when you stand up for No Kid Hungry.

No child should go hungry in America. But 1 in 7 kids will face hunger this year. No Kid Hungry is ending childhood hunger through effective programs that provide kids with the food they need. This is a problem we know how to solve. No Kid Hungry is a campaign of Share Our Strength, an organization working to end hunger and poverty.

Since its launch in 2008, tens of thousands of restaurants around the country have joined Dine for No Kid Hungry to end childhood hunger in America. Dine for No Kid Hungry is embraced by the food service industry the charity to unite behind, proving that feeding people for a living is more than a profession – it’s a passion. Check out our participating restaurants and we look forward to seeing you on the list!

Participation is free. Yes, free. We know this is different from a lot of non-profit partnerships out there, and it’s part of what makes Dine for No Kid Hungry flexible to fit your brand and your goals. It’s also how we can unite the whole industry—we’ve removed the barrier to entry. Every restaurant can play a part in ending childhood hunger.

No Kid Hungry provides grants, expertise, research and other support for local groups feeding kids across the country, as well as advocacy for policies that help children and families. For a comprehensive picture of how No Kid Hungry feeds children and how your donations make it possible, check out our most recent annual report.

Start by filling out our interest form and we'll guide you through the process.

Participation options are flexible and you can choose what works best for your brand’s needs. We do have some suggestions based on what we know works well:

• Create a Bounce Back coupon – Customers donate $X and, in return, receive a coupon to redeem on their next visit, driving return traffic and redemptions that increase sales. Example: “Donate $2 and receive a coupon for a free dessert on your next visit."
• Donate a Percentage of Sales – You may choose to donate a portion of sales from one day, one week, an entire month—whatever fits your brand. Example: "$1 from all Kids Meals sold will be donated to No Kid Hungry."
• Special Menu Promotion – Choose a particular menu item and donate the sales from that item, helping push a new LTO or maximizing a popular best-seller. Example: "For every guacamole sold, $2 will be donated to No Kid Hungry."

There is no requirement as to how long or when you run your promotion. However, September is Hunger Awareness Month, and so we do encourage restaurants to participate for the complete month of September. We also heavily promote Dine for No Kid Hungry in the media, on social, and on our website—directing consumers to participating restaurants—during September, so it has its advantages.

We drive consumers to our Dine for No Kid Hungry Map, which highlights the promotions of our partners and lists the store locations of all participating restaurants. We also roll out a national PR campaign to promote Dine for No Kid Hungry to consumers in the media, and create opportunities for participating restaurants to join our call-to-action to “dine out.”

Yes! Check out our online Resource Center. Once you have registered, you can use the tools located here (photos, press releases, point-of-purchase materials, consumer outreach communications, employee training templates, etc.) to make the most of your promotion. You will also find great local market content to highlight your work with No Kid Hungry in your home state.

We offer guides for employee engagement in our Resource Center, and we can help you get creative. But we also have a few quick tips:

• Inform them - Educate your team on the fact that 1 in 7 kids face hunger in America, and how No Kid Hungry is working to end childhood hunger, not just nationally, but also in your state. We have videos that speak to power of our work, and how the restaurant industry can make a difference.
• Encourage friendly competition among locations - Harness the power of cheerful competition and incentives to reward top fundraisers on your team, among your locations, and in your leadership.

Absolutely - you can see them in our Cases for Success. The benefit of uniting an industry around this cause is that many partners are happy to share how they’ve created successful promotions to help end childhood hunger.

No Kid Hungry works to end childhood hunger in all 50 states, and our national programmatic and advocacy work supports state-level work to connect more kids with the food they need. To learn more, see the Local Market Content section of our Resource Center and check out our State Impact Sheets that detail No Kid Hungry’s work in each state.

All donations are collected by the restaurant and submitted at the end of your promotion via a check made out to “Share Our Strength” (No Kid Hungry is a campaign of national anti-hunger organization Share Our Strength) and mailed to the P.O. Box below:

Dine for No Kid Hungry
P.O. Box 759242
Baltimore, Maryland 21275