For those of you who don’t know about this remarkable cause #SaveWithStories, spearheaded by Amy Adams (@amyadams) and Jennifer Garner (@jennifer.garner), keep reading because what they are doing is simply amazing.  They started a project to provide books and meals to schoolchildren who are homebound during this coronavirus crisis.

The number of children who go hungry because there are no longer school meals is staggering.  Go ahead, take guess, how many children qualify for free or reduced lunch in America?  I’ll give you hint, currently in America there are roughly 75 million kids under the age of 18.  Unless you’re in the industry, whatever you’re thinking, it’s too low.  I like most people think, this is America, it can’t be that many, maybe a couple million or worst-case scenario 10% making the number in need of help about 7.5 million.  Wrong, so very wrong.  I was blown away to learn that roughly 1 out of 3 children need reduced or free lunch.  Putting the number of children who need help during this coronavirus pandemic around 25 million.  That’s a shocking number and these children need our help right now.

While schools are doing their best to provide those meals, it just can’t meet the needs of everyone.  Many meals must be picked up at certain times, which is not always convenient or even possible for many families.  What happens when families are working or don’t have the means to get to the meal pick up location?  The simple answer is, they go hungry. 

That is not a satisfactory answer and #SaveWithStories is doing something about it.  They have partnered with “No Kid Hungry” and “Save the Children” but they need both money and help.

Save with Stories has over 100 celebrities from Movies, TV, Athletes and Musicians who have joined the cause and read to children.  Donations from their efforts has raised nearly 2 million dollars from over 25,000 people, many in $10 increments, which is inspirational during this financial turmoil.  

Save with Stories, through “Save the Children” and “No kid Hungry” has helped over 90,000 children in more than 200 schools across America. They have provided money for bus drivers and gas to deliver to small communities who can’t make it to the food pick up locations.  The money is also used to provide community feeding services and food banks with food, school supplies and books for the children to take home.

The generous reception has allowed #SaveWithStories to expand and help children worldwide.  Programs are spreading to faraway places like Australia to the Netherlands and South Korea. 

What Amy Adams and Jennifer Garner have created is miraculous and they are nothing short of Angels for doing this. Not only have they helped children in need but the power of a celebrity reading to a child can spark a love of reading that could last a lifetime. 

The #SaveWithStories program has inspired people from all walks of life to help take up the cause.  Regular people are now reading stories to children on social media.  I hope this wildfire that Amy Adams and Jennifer Garner have started burns brightly forever.  When the children are back in school, getting the food they need, we must continue to feed their minds with books. What I tell all kids that I read to is; 

“Always remember, the more you read, the more you succeed!!!”

We here at @atozoobook are in support of the great work you do.  If you can help those children in need please check out their website:

www.savethechildren.org/savewithstories

#SaveWithStories and everyone,  please be safe and courteous to one another during this trying time, remember we are all in this together.