Springfield Trust Co., Rainbow Network fight hunger

Springfield Trust Co. has pledged to match all gifts dollar-for-dollar, up to $50,000, through April 30 as part of Rainbow Network’s Hunger Challenge. The money will aid the organization’s hunger-fighting efforts in Nicaragua.

The challenge, if fully met, would provide 1 million meals to malnourished children in Nicaragua’s most rural communities.

Springfield-based Rainbow Network operates 105 feeding centers in Nicaragua that provide hot meals six days a week to nearly 11,000 children under the age of 12. The program also feeds nursing mothers, pregnant women and at-risk elderly.

A single meal in the centers typically has eight ounces of a vegetable casserole, eight ounces of rice, an eight-ounce soybean or corn tortilla, eight ounces of beans and an eight-ounce cup of pineapple juice. The cost per meal for the organization averages less than 10 cents.

Created in 1995, Rainbow Network is a Christian partnership approach to ministry with a full-time presence in Nicaragua. The organization delivers self-help programs in health care, education, housing and economic development to about 42,000 Nicaraguans in 97 rural communities.[[In-content Ad]]