Feeding the Future

“Our mission is to provide meals for children struggling with hunger, while teaching them a critical life skill to help them break the cycle of food insecurity.

The effects of childhood food insecurity go far beyond hungry children in the classroom. Food insecurity among children has real long-term consequences.

Studies have shown that children suffering from food insecurity not only suffer from obvious health consequences, but it also affects a child’s cognitive ability. This can lead to a number of behavior problems making them more likely to be suspended, repeat a grade, have higher absence rates, and perform worse on standardized testing (American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Pediatrics, and the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry).

This can go on to affect the kinds of employment they can successfully compete for, their consequent earning capacity, and ultimately their lifetime earnings. And those are only things that involve the children themselves, saying nothing of the effect childhood food insecurity has on the community as a whole.”

  • Steven Cota-Robles, Executive Director

The Tucson Family Food Project is in the process of fundamentally changing the landscape of childhood food insecurity for Tucson’s school-aged children through a revolutionary approach.

Every week TTFFP teaches kids how to cook a new recipe FOR THEMSELVES using fresh, local, and seasonal produce. We believe that we must try something new to fight this incredibly urgent problem!

Through instructional YouTube videos and easy to follow instructions, The Tucson Family Food Project is giving kids the life skills they need to make food for themselves - giving them their best chance of living a happy and healthy life.

  • Food insecurity affects a child’s entire life. When a child doesn’t get the proper nutrition to fuel their brain they suffer from aggression, lower nutrient intake, cognitive problems, anxiety, anemia, obesity - especially in girls, and chronic illness.

    This lack of nutrition has devastating effects on a child’s educational experience. Children who suffer from food insecurity are more likely to be suspended, more likely to repeat a grade, they have higher absence rates, they perform worse on standardized testing, and they will have a limited chance for long-term academic success.

    • Everyday approximately 46,000 children in Tucson struggle with food insecurity.

  • Every Friday, The Tucson Family Food Project provides the kids in its program with a meal kit that will feed at least four people - this way we don’t just feed the child, but we feed the household.

    Here is where The Tucson Family Food Project is different. The meal kits we provide to our students aren’t simply handed out for them to eat, they’re given to them RAW.

    Through accompanying instructional YouTube videos and easy to follow instructions, The Tucson Family Food Project teaches kids an absolutely essential life skill - how to feed yourself.

    Every week, our students are in the kitchen getting a real world lesson in how to prepare food. At TTFFP we’re teaching them about nutrition, we’re teaching them kitchen skills, and ultimately we’re teaching our students how to be self-sufficient human beings.

    • Grow program throughout Tucson

      • We have identified 39 age appropriate schools in the Tucson Unified, Flowing Wells, Amphi, and Sunnyside School Districts to incorporate into our program.

    • Restore and renovate a closed TUSD middle school to use as our flagship headquarters

      • We are currently working with the TUSD to map out the details of this process. This project has been discussed with the Superintendent of TUSD, as well as multiple TUSD board members, each of whom has committed to voting for the project’s approval.

    • Development of Regenerative Farm

      • Using the remaining school grounds, we will start a regenerative farm to sustainably grow ingredients for our recipes, while at the same time serving as a carbon sink for the surrounding area. With widespread implementation of this model nationwide, we aim not only to Feed the Kids, but also help in the fight against climate change, addressing two of the biggest issues of our time simultaneously.

    • National Growth

      • Replicate closed school model across Arizona and The U.S., feeding America’s food insecure students and their families—and empowering children by teaching them essential life skills and self-confidence.