Cooking ConAgra-Style and Fighting Child Hunger

In partnership with Feeding America, the nation’s leading hunger-relief organization, ConAgra Foods is launching its Child Hunger Ends Here (CHEH) Neighborhood Rally campaign. ConAgra invited me to participate and I immediately joined in.

There are so many ways to get involved. From March through May, you can purchase one of seven participating ConAgra Foods brands – for every purchase, ConAgra will donate one meal to Feeding America – up to 2.5 million meals this year.  You can get a coupon for $1.50 off four of these brands  – Banquet, Chef Boyardee, Healthy Choice, Manwich, Marie Callender’s, Orville Redenbacher’s, and Peter Pan Peanut Butter –  at www.childhungerendshere.com.

 You can purchase brands like Chef Boyardee or Peter Pan Peanut Butter and donate to your local food bank, you can use brands like Banquet or Manwich as ingredients to make some of your favorite meals like Creamy Chicken with Sun-Dried Tomatoes, or you can simply enjoy brands like Orville Redenbacher’s right out of the box – and feel good because your purchase is directly benefiting children struggling with hunger.

As you know, I love putting healthy foods on my table and getting my children to try new things. But this “season” I”m struggling to keep up, imagine that, right? Between swimming, t-ball, school, PTO, mommying, breastfeeding… getting a good, healthy meal in isn’t always easy. I checked out ConAgra’s suggested meals and snacks, searching for an easy, healthy meal that I could use the coupons for.

So, tonight I raced home after my whirlwind swimming-t-ball hours and the kids, of course, were starving. This was the SIMPLEST meal to make. I promise. Pinky-swear. This was easy.

I chose Spicy, Crunchy Chicken Wraps and Big was appreciative. Because he didn’t just like his wrap. He didn’t just enjoy it. He ate 3 whole wraps for dinner tonight. 3. Three.

As you may recall from previous Just Precious is Cookin’ posts, I like to tweak. So, while I did buy the Banquet Original Chicken Breast Tenders, and I had full intentions of using them, I opened my fridge and remembered that I had nearly an entire rotisserie chicken cut into small pieces in there, left overs from Sunday night. So, we’ll eat the Tenders next week (and if Big has anything to say about it, we’ll eat the Tenders with this dinner again.) I also couldn’t find the specified Ro Tel, so I opted for Ro Tel’s Diced Tomatoes with Lime and Cilantro instead, and added about a teaspoon of chopped green chillies to it.

See? Simple. And you can make it even healthier by adding slices of avocado or match-stick carrot in the wrap.

So, here’s the thing. I’m totally excited about this cause because, you know, kids are starving:

Nearly one in four children in the United States doesn’t know where their next meal is coming from.  That’s nearly 17 million kids across the country from all walks of life who struggle with hunger.  That’s why ConAgra Foods is encouraging people across the country to rally together to help end child hunger.

So, I’m joining in my neighborhood rally. On May 17, from 4:30 to 8:00 pm, I’m joining Kelly from The Centsible Life (who’s also my business partner at Just Centsible Consulting), at Cosi in Exton, PA. 10% of all proceeds from the evening’s sales will benefit Feeding America where the funds will be used to help local area families put food on their tables.

If you’re local to the area and want to get involved, please let me know. We have sponsorship opportunities and are accepting donations for prizes. We’d also love to see you at the event. So come out on May 17 for dinner, coffee, or even dessert.

You can also click here to learn about getting involved or hosting an event in your own neighborhood.

© 2010, Julie Meyers Pron. All rights reserved.

About Julie Meyers Pron

Julie Meyers Pron has written 894 post in this blog.

mom of 3 and wife, Julie is a former elementary school teacher and a Public Relations manager. She is the owner/editor of Just Precious, founding partner of Just Centsible, and a team member of Splash Creative Media. Julie is a PTOer, volunteer, elementary educator and that's just the beginning of the list!

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