Established in 1979, Feed the Children exists to defeat hunger. It is one of the largest U.S.-based charities and serves those in need in the U.S. and in 10 countries around the world. It provides food, education, essentials and disaster response. It operates 5 distribution centers (located in Oklahoma, Indiana, California, Tennessee and Pennsylvania). In fiscal year 2016, through its domestic and international programs, Feed the Children distributed 105 million pounds of food and essentials worldwide with a total value of $415 million. Through partnerships, its collective outreach benefited 5.4 million people in the U.S. and more than 541,000 individuals internationally, for a total of 5.9 million people globally. Because education is one of the best ways to help children escape the cycle of poverty, Feed the Children promotes school attendance and completion by distributing backpacks to homeless children and offering free books and supplies to educators through its Teacher Store locations in the U.S. Through these stores and its U.S. programs, Feed the Children provided $6.8 million worth of school supplies, approximately 65,000 backpacks and more than 869,000 books to children in the U.S. in fiscal year 2016. Internationally, Feed the Children uses a child-focused community development approach emphasizing four key program pillars to transform lives by improving the food and nutrition security of mothers and children in order to reduce malnutrition and poverty in El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Kenya, Malawi, Nicaragua, the Philippines, Tanzania, and Uganda. Last fiscal year, 541,000 children and caregivers were fully engaged in its programs to promote community self-reliance. Key activities for fiscal year 2016 for our overall international work included: providing school meals and supplemental feeding to 245,000 children; training 138,000 caregivers through Care Groups; distributing deworming medication to 2.1 million children and vitamin A to more than 1.5 million young children; and benefiting 26,000 people in the formation of village savings and loan groups. Feed the Children also sponsored approximately 25,000 children, addressing the root causes of poverty through sponsorship of children, communities, schools and other community-based programs and project activities. Feed the Children is accredited by GuideStar Exchange and the BBB Wise Giving Alliance and is rated by Charity Navigator. Learn more about Feed the Children at www.feedthechildren.org.