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Home | What We Do | Keeping Kids Fed Through Pandemic Times
McLane Global

Keeping Kids Fed Through Pandemic Times

3 min read
OFFICE: Washington, D.C.
the ask

Dish out details about a national food delivery program for rural students who rely on school-provided meals and increase program enrollment

The School Nutrition Assistance Program feeds 22 million students yearly. But it wasn’t made for mass home delivery. So when school went virtual, the Emergency Meals-to-You program, a partnership between McLane Global, The Baylor Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty, the USDA and others, turned a small pilot in Texas into a national lifeline for students in need overnight. But people didn’t know it existed or how it worked. We needed to cut through the chaos and get the word out. Fast.
Expertise Applied

The program’s first 60 days were so successful that funding extended through summer.

our solution

Reach far and wide — but with a laser focus

High-level research revealed where eligible students were scattered. But only key decision–makers could make the call on school district enrollment, so that’s who we targeted to ensure the right people got the message.  

Initial media outreach led to regular interviews with McLane Global spokespersons throughout the campaign. While our tiered stakeholder engagement approach prioritized organizations that could most directly reach school-system decision-makers. We vetted the organizations in advance, auditing their online communications (social, newsletters, blogs and more) to determine the best way to reach members and make clear, achievable asks. Once districts signed up, we had about a week to get students enrolled. Our tiger team developed hyper-local media lists, conducted outreach and deployed customizable press releases to reach as many eligible families as possible. 

table with healthy greens text support the emergency meals to you partnership
PLAY
the impact

Millions of meals sent. Thousands of students impacted. Program expectations far exceeded.

Breaking through the pandemic noise, earning 211 million impressions and 681 media placements (most in hyper-local outlets) was a victory in itself. World News Tonight and Good Morning America even picked up the story. We held an audience with 33 of the 42 stakeholders targeted, leading to 51 verifiable actions and information-sharing with organizations down the line. But most important was knowing that so many kids didn’t have to miss a meal.
100K+
students enrolled across 37 states and Puerto Rico
26.6M+
meals shipped March-May
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