Currently, 1 in 4 children in America are at risk of hunger. President Obama has called on the nation to work together to end childhood hunger by 2015. GEF’s Plant with a Purpose campaign provides participants with the resources they need to plant gardens with the goal of aiding hunger-relief efforts.  As part of meaningful service-learning projects, Green Thumb Challenge youth gardens across the country can help to meet the critical need of their area food banks.

GEF has teamed up with AmpleHarvest.org to support these efforts and to enhance the impact of this important initiative. AmpleHarvest.org, a nonprofit organization that helps gardeners diminish hunger in the U.S., is providing tools to the Green Thumb Challenge community that assist with locating local food pantries and forming key partnerships. AmpleHarvest.org's mission is to diminish hunger and malnutrition in America by educating, encouraging and enabling gardeners to donate their excess harvest to the needy in their community instead of allowing it to rot in the garden.

Food pantries and schools/youth groups nationwide can work together to increase both the volume and nutritional quality of food donations, while working towards the ultimate aim of ending childhood hunger in 2015. Are you interested in joining the effort to grow and donate food for the hungry? Do you want to help the nation reach its goal of ending childhood hunger by 2015? You can make an impact. Visit www.ampleharvest.org to donate.