Food insecurity is an ongoing issue across the United States and the world at large. Many children in the community rely on free or reduced lunches at school for their meals every weekday, but Saturday and Sunday can be difficult without the guarantee of a meal. When children go hungry, they may find it hard to focus on things like education, impacting their future and the whole Region.
NWI No Child Hungry works to combat food insecurity by providing children with healthy, shelf-stable food that covers breakfast, lunch, and dinner over the weekends through its Buddy Bag program.
“NWI No Child Hungry was created to help offset hunger for local students who are food insecure,” said President of NWI No Child Hungry Gretchen Mercer. “Oftentimes, the main meals the students who are in our program eat are the breakfast and lunch they get at the school, so sometimes those students are home on the weekends and don’t get sufficient nutrition. Our goal is to help offset hunger so that they can come back to school on Monday fresh and ready to learn.”
NWI No Child Hungry began as a small operation in the Region five years ago. The nonprofit mostly serves the Porter Township school district but has recently extended a hand to schools in Merrillville and Gary. NWI No Child Hungry is a grassroots, volunteer-led organization, so expansion has been limited by the time of volunteers and funds raised by private donations. One area that began to feel outdated as the nonprofit grew was the website.
“We were running a Wix.com site because it was free. Because we’re all volunteers and because we’re taking donations from private donors only, every dollar matters,” said Mercer. “It did the job, but it wasn’t anything incredible.”
Recently, nationally recognized local website designer Valpo Web Design & Marketing reached out to Mercer about redesigning NWI No Child Hungry’s website at no cost.
“At Valpo Web Design, we believe local businesses should do all that they can to support each other,” said Valpo Web Design Content Writer and Marketing Manager Alyssa Mettenburg. “When it comes to benevolent organizations such as NWI No Child Hungry, we know that a little support can go a long way in achieving success and reaching greater distances. That’s why we are grateful for the opportunity to offer our services at no cost to this cause.”
Mettenburg and the rest of the Valpo Web Design team were introduced to NWI No Child Hungry by one of their clients.
“One of the owners of Lori K Bath, Dan O’Callaghan, expressed to us that NWI No Child Hungry would benefit greatly from a new website,” said Mettenburg. “We researched their organization and decided to offer them a new website at no cost. Our team contacted them, excited to help their organization see a greater reach online.”
The new website has been everything Mercer could hope for and more. Information from donors to resources available in the Region are easily accessible thanks to the website’s intuitive layout.
“People know clearly what’s going on and what we’re doing,” Mercer said. “What I wanted was for people that come to our website to know exactly who our donors are. I wanted families to know what our program is, what we’re trying to do, and what we’re trying to fight. I feel that Valpo Web Design has captured all of that.”
The Valpo Web Design team is hoping that the revamped site will help NWI No Child Hungry help even more students in our community.
“The NWI No Child Hungry website is a testament to the work we provide here at Valpo Web Design,” said Mettenburg. “We were able to build them a website that showcases their generous sponsors, highlights their upcoming fundraisers, and spreads awareness about their mission. With this new website, the organization will see greater sponsorship and awareness, helping them extend their reach to more and more local families.”
NWI No Child Hungry has a slew of fundraising events planned for the rest of this year starting with its Swiftie Experience event on February 23. While the fundraisers are always a lot of effort, the payoff is always worth it to Mercer and her supporters.
“I’m so proud of my organization and every volunteer that I have, and I think that this website captures the hard work and passion that we all have for this program and for fighting food insecurity,” Mercer said. “I cannot say enough how grateful I am that Valpo Web Design took this project on and did this for us.”
To learn more about NWI No Child Hungry, become involved, or explore the new website, visit nwinochildhungry.org.
To learn more about Valpo Web Design & Marketing, visit valpowebdesign.com.
