About Us
Getting to Know The Thomas Promise Foundation
OUR
MISSION
Our primary mission is to provide meals for students on the weekends when school-based breakfast and lunch programs are not in operation. After all, kids need to eat on Saturday and Sunday as well. We continue to help during summer school hours
We have also sought to help with local summer lunch programs that provide for many of the same children for which we provide for during the school year
In recent years, however, we have found the need expanding as families come to us for help, just keeping food on the table
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REACH
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HISTORY
Brooke Thomas Now & Then
In the early 2000s, the financial activity of a first-grade girl puzzled her parents. They would provide a generous stipend for her lunch account at school, but she would spend it far more quickly than her little tummy or sweet tooth could explain. Her parents finally sat her down and asked her to give an account for the money pit her lunch account had become. The answer changed their lives and the lives of thousands. Brooke Thomas was providing food for friends whom she saw were hungry at lunchtime. She said she just wanted to help.
Her parents, Wade and Dianna Thomas of Dade City, researched the situation and found that throughout Pasco County, many children do not have access to nutritious meals due to homelessness or poverty. This was especially true over the weekend, when there were no breakfast or lunch programs available at school. Like their daughter, they knew they also had to help.
Wade Thomas decided to launch The Thomas Promise Foundation. He gathered a board of like-minded business people and founded the organization on the premise that no child should ever go hungry. Today, The Thomas Promise Foundation provides bags full of food complete with six meals and snacks for Pasco County students over the weekend when they would otherwise go without. The students are vetted by the school’s ABC Program to assure that the students they were helping are genuinely in need. With the help of a multitude of local volunteers the foundation has not missed one weekend of deliveries since its inception.
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REASON
"Food insecurity can damage children’s health and brain development years before they enter a classroom. By kindergarten, food-insecure children often are cognitively, emotionally and physically behind their food-secure peers."
Childrenshealthwatch.org
"Food insecurity and insufficiency are associated with adverse health and developmental outcomes in U.S. children. Among 6- to 12-y-old children, food insufficiency was associated with poorer mathematics scores, grade repetition, absenteeism, tardiness, visits to a psychologist, anxiety, aggression, psychosocial dysfunction, and difficulty getting along with other children. Among 15- to 16-y-old adolescents, food insufficiency was associated with depressive disorders and suicide symptoms after controlling for income and other factors . Recently, food insecurity was associated with poor social functioning, but not with academic performance or attained BMI, in kindergarten children."
Jn.nutrition.org
"In a pre-pandemic survey, nearly 60% of children from low-income communities said they had come to school hungry, and the majority of those kids admit that it makes school difficult. Of those children, 12% are too distracted by their hunger to be able to tackle their evening homework.
And teachers can see the effects of hunger as well:
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80% observed the negative impact of hunger on concentration
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76% saw decreased academic performance
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62% saw behavioral issues increased
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47% noticed children getting sick more often"
No Kid Hungry.org
"Research demonstrates that students who are “at risk for hunger” are more likely to have attention and behavioral issues and less likely to perform well in school."
Nycfoodpolicy.org
"Food insecurity has been found to be negatively associated with outcomes that may contribute to poor academic achievement in school-aged children, including poor psychosocial outcomes, mental health and cognitive development. Studies have shown that children experiencing household food insecurity are at risk of behavioural and emotional issues including affecting their ability to be engaged in school."
Ashiabi GS & O’Neal KK (2008) A framework for understanding the association between food insecurity and children’s developmental outcomes. Child Dev Perspect 2, 71–77.
"We find that food insecurity is a significant factor in determining the average math-SAT score. An increase in food insecurity lowers the students’ Math-SAT scores. Although, a few studies using small micro-level survey data have found evidence to link food insecurity to children’s learning outcomes, this is the first study to find this link using a macro level panel data for the US states, indicating that the problem of food insecurity is much more pervasive than what the small scale studies have indicated so far, and needs to be dealt with in a more effective way through public policies, if the US has to succeed in the twenty first century."
Sharma, Amarendra and Carr, Abigail, Food Insecurity and Standardized Test Scores (July 26, 2015). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2723387 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2723387