Healthy Appetites Promote Positive Youth

Food insecurity is defined as the lack of access to sufficient food because of limited financial resources. 

Food insecurity statistics: 

• 10% of Americans experience food insecurity
• 14% of Texas households experience food insecurity
• 20% of Texas children are food insecure 

Lack of proper nutrition adversely affects academic performance, and children in food-insecure homes are more likely to fall ill, resulting in higher school absences. 

The Junior League of The Woodlands’ H.A.P.P.Y. (Healthy Appetites Promote Positive Youth) program aims to alleviate hunger in vulnerable children by partnering with area schools in North Harris and Montgomery County to provide over 10,000 weekend backpacks of healthy, child-friendly, nonperishable, and easily consumable food throughout the school year. 

Junior League of The Woodlands volunteers create meal plans for child-friendly, non-perishable, and easily consumed food items, fill bags with these items, and deliver them to schools to be distributed to children for consumption over the weekend. 

The continued expansion of this program enabled Junior League of The Woodlands to support hungry children in a total of forty-two schools across four school districts (Conroe, Klein, Montgomery, and Spring ISDs) during the 2024–2025 League year. 

We look forward to expanding our program one more time in the 2025-2026 school year, serving over 12,500 weekend bags in our service area and continuing the HAPPY program corporate sponsorship option. 

For more information about our HAPPY Corporate Sponsorship Program, please contact FundTheLeague@jltw.org.