LifeRice was founded in 2015 after formerly being a part of Kids Against Hunger. Kids Against Hunger was started in March 1999 by Richard Proudfit, a Minnesota businessman. Kids Against Hunger-Cambridge was started in 2005 and for 10 years it operated as a satellite of Kids Against Hunger. During those 10 years they have had over 7,000 volunteers in the local community get involved to pack over a million meals. In the fall of 2015 the corporation changed the name to LifeRice to control costs, affiliate more directly with Youth With A Mission, to facilitate a larger number of volunteers and ultimately to provide meals to feed more hungry people.
LifeRice is a ministry partner of Youth With A Mission (YWAM).
Richard Proudfit was born and raised in St. Paul. When he was growing up his father was a chef and owned his own restaurant. When Richard was in elementary school he had a habit of never taking no for an answer. In high school he was very good at basketball. During college he majored in engineering and business.
In the 1960s, Richard Proudfit started his business literally in his own garage. Richard's obsession with feeding starving children began when he went on a medical trip to Honduras after Hurricane Fifi, which left thousands dead or homeless. This event is also where he said,
"God has called me to feed starving children. I have to do that first, then when I have activated their bodies, I can do other things."
After he came back from Honduras, in 1979 with the vision to start a feeding program. In 1982 he founded Feed My Starving Children. After experimenting with various foods for hunger relief, Richard hired scientists from General Mills, Pillsbury Foods, Archer Danials Midland and Cargill to create a highly nutritious meal that stores well and is internationally accepted. In 1999, Kids Against Hunger was incorporated, as a non-profit, hunger relief organization that packages the newly developed high-nutrition meal consisting of rice, vitamins and minerals, and vegetables, to be sent to families, children and adults around the world. His lifetime commitment is to solve enormous world problems. Mr. Proudfit knew that his vision of feeding starving children required a fast packaging organization for the high demand of food all over the world, as well as a manual packaging process. Richard's goal in life is set very high. Every time he is asked whether he will retire or not, the answer is always the same,
"I can't, my children are dying."