On a sunny, late August afternoon, there are a lot of families with little kids sitting in the dining room in Cooper’s Food & Drink in Tacoma, finishing lunch.
It’s a scene that played out all summer. Cooper’s was among 18 restaurants where kids in Tacoma, Seattle and even Denver, Colorado, could come and get a free meal.
“There are days where it’s overwhelming, but it’s overwhelming in the best possible way because it’s just filled with so much emotion and joy,” said Sarah Morrison, who works at Cooper’s.
It’s all part of a Tacoma-grown campaign called All Youth Can Eat, which this year served over 7,000 meals to young people. That’s more than double the number served during the campaign last year.
“There’s no set goal,” said Kwabi Amoah-Forson, the man behind the campaign. “It’s just that the resource is available, and in a country that’s so plentiful, why aren’t our bellies full?”
Cooper’s has participated in the annual campaign since it started in 2021. That year, Amoah-Forson, a local humanitarian, traveled across the country in his light blue Peace Bus. He was on a mission to figure out what issues affected everyone, regardless of their political ideologies or other dividing factors. He came up with four — lack of quality education, poverty, racism and hunger.
He decided to tackle hunger at home, starting with young people.
“ I think that hunger, as horrible as it is, could be a rally point to creating solidarity for the nation,” Amoah-Forson said.
In Washington state, one child in every six struggles with not having enough to eat, according to Feeding America.
“ Hunger is massive. It’s sort of like a silent pandemic in a way,” Amoah-Forson said. “People don’t like to talk about it, and people are really struggling with it.”
Between July 1 and September 1, restaurants choose a day and time to serve people 18 and under, and college students 24 and under, for free. Restaurants get to choose what food is offered on their All Youth Can Eat menu.
During these months, Tacoma Public Schools also offers free meal programs at parks around the city.
But Morrison said there’s something different about going to a restaurant.
“It just, it means the world to me. I was a child who grew up with food scarcity. And when given the opportunity to give back to a community that has given so much to us and supported us in such a way, it was a no-brainer,” Morrison said. “Just getting to come to an air conditioned restaurant, get a fountain beverage, and sit with your family for an hour or so and play little card games at the table, I think it’s a whole experience rather than just a meal.”
The food supplier for Cooper’s, US Foods, donated all the food for the restaurant’s participation in the campaign for the first week or so.
Every year since the campaign started, it has grown. Eventually, Amoah-Forson said he would like to expand the campaign to be available year round, and also include senior citizens.
The campaign raised $12,000 in donations this year, which will be shared with participating restaurants.
“ My hope is just to make this thing as big as possible (and) that hopefully America could be a place where people who are hungry are fed,” Amoah-Forson said.
