Hunger Action Month Highlights
Thanks for Giving a Little Time to Help Feed a Lot!
Hunger Action Month was a huge success—thanks to hunger advocates who spread the word about hunger, raised voices in support of Child Nutrition Programs, and did a lot more to make a big difference in the lives of millions of hungry Americans.
During Hunger Action Month, a total of 20,520 actions were taken and 187,760 minutes were accumulated in support of hunger relief and child nutrition programs!
More results from Hunger Action Month:
- Emails to Congress: 6,405
- Tell a Friend Contacts: 5,707
- Blog and Website Badges: 6,181
Feeding America appreciates everyone who took part Hunger Actions Month and the effort to fight hunger! Remember, hunger doesn’t end with Hunger Action Month. You can continue to support our hunger-relief efforts by remaining an active advocate and making your voice heard!
More HAM Highlights:
Drive Out Hunger Tour
To celebrate Hunger Action Month, The Cheesecake Factory visited 30 cities in 30 days on the “Drive Out Hunger” Tour. The goal was to collect 100,000 cans of soup for donation to Feeding America. On September 30, guests were invited to bring in two cans of soup—and 10 percent of their guest check would be donated to the city’s local food bank. The Cheesecake Factory exceeded their goal by more than 300 percent—they collected a grand total of 321,992 cans of soup, which were donated to food banks across the United States!
"From California to Washington, D.C., and every place in between, we've seen Americans, young and old, all ethnicities, coming together in support of our communities. There were scout groups, church groups, elementary, middle, and high school groups, and thousands of our own staff members, all rallying together to support this cause," said David Overton, Founder of The Cheesecake Factory restaurants. "We are touched to see the enthusiasm for combating hunger in America by The Cheesecake Factory guests and staff members nationwide, who have donated these cans of soup in order to make a difference."
Feeding America thanks The Cheesecake Factory!
Read more about the “Drive Out Hunger” Tour—and view a photo of a Red Velvet Cheesecake sculpture built with 30,000 cans of soup donated by the Campbell Soup Company!
Rock a Little, Feed a Lot
Hunger Action Month ended with a bang at the “Rock a Little, Feed a Lot” concert, featuring Sheryl Crow, Ben Harper, and other celebrity performers. The big news of the night was ConAgra Foods Foundation’s contribution of the largest donation ever made to fight child hunger—$10 million! This donation to Feeding America will go a long way toward feeding our nation’s hungry children!
“Hunger Action Month may be coming to an end, but our commitment to ending childhood hunger is year-round,” said Gary Rodkin, CEO of ConAgra Foods. “With this $10 million grant to Feeding America’s child hunger programs, ConAgra Foods and our Foundation are strengthening our commitment to help provide kids in America with the nourishment to thrive.”
Thanks a million, ConAgra Foods!
Read more about “Rock a Little, Feed a Lot.”
Bloggers Talk about Hunger
Bloggers from all over have joined the fight during Hunger Action Month. See a few of the posts that helped raise awareness:
Feeding America thanks everyone who made hunger a top priority in September! And don’t forget, we still need you! Hunger Action Month may be over, but the fight against hunger goes on—and with your help, we will continue to make a difference!
Food Bank Competition Winners
Six Lucky Food Banks Receive a Truckload of Product from Kraft Foods!
During September, hunger advocates across the country took action against hunger—and contributed their time to the Food Bank Competition. Each advocate’s accumulated minutes were added to their food bank’s total minute tally, and the food banks with the most minutes won a truckload of product from Kraft Foods!
We at Feeding America offer our thanks and congratulations to the winners of our Food Bank Competition. And we want you to know that, even if your food bank wasn't among the winners, your participation has made everyone a winner. Your willingness to take action and make hunger relief a priority for our elected officials ultimately helps every hungry American. Thank you for your support.
Small Distribution:
Food Bank of South Jersey, Pennsauken, New Jersey – 50,325 minutes and 3,537 actions
South Jerseyans are big supporters of their local food bank—and it shows! They accumulated over 50,000 minutes in the Food Bank Competition! Other local efforts to support Hunger Action Month are still underway in South Jersey …”Donate Your Dessert” began in mid-September and runs through the end of October. At participating local restaurants, diners can contribute the amount they would normally spend on dessert, with the proceeds benefitting the Food Bank of South Jersey.
Westmoreland County Food Bank, Delmont, Pennsylvania – 37,755 minutes and 2,753 actions
Jennifer of the Westmoreland County Food Bank, says, “We never dreamed that our Food Bank would have even had a chance to win the truckload of food, but we are delighted to see that our community has ONCE AGAIN shown up to help those in need here at home!”
Medium Distribution:
Second Harvest Food Bank of East Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee – 13,725 minutes and 1,178 actions
Elaine of the Second Harvest Food Bank says, “East Tennessee is known for its volunteer spirit—an example is the University of Tennessee Volunteers—and that spirit enthused our community to help its neighbors. We are struggling with many unemployed individuals who for the first time in their lives need our help. We thank Kraft and all involved for their generosity.”
United Food Bank, Mesa, Arizona – 2,500 minutes and 417 actions
Donna at United Food Bank, says, “Having our Arizona community join together to help bring awareness to the issue of hunger has been awesome! Our neighbors know that more and more people are in need, and the only way to get help is to reach out and get the word out. It is because of their efforts to reach out that we now have a truckload of food from Kraft to help our 250+ agencies in Arizona. This is a perfect example of United Food Bank’s motto, ‘Neighbors Helping Neighbors!’”
Large Distribution:
Pittsburgh Food Bank, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania – 8,685 minutes and 1,244 actions
Dennis of the Pittsburgh Food Bank says, "The chance to win a truckload of food provided a great incentive to reach out to new advocates and encourage our experienced advocates to "speak out" to strengthen the federal child nutrition programs. We are very grateful to our board, staff, volunteers, member agencies, clients, and other friends and stakeholders throughout the Pittsburgh region who made this effort a success."
Daily Bread Food Bank, Miami, Florida – 4,240 minutes and 653 actions
Jennifer, of the Daily Bread Food Bank, says: “It was really a team effort and everyone rallied together in the end to get the job done! We have an amazing team here and everyone really pulls together when necessary!”
Meet Our Champions!
Hunger Champions Make a Local Impact
The most important actions against hunger take place at the local level, where Feeding America’s Hunger Champions are hard at work. All across America, from Arizona to Illinois and Tennessee to Texas, advocates who want to take a more active role in the fight against hunger are stepping up to become Hunger Champions.
We want you to meet two of them—and hear the compelling stories of why they have joined the fight against hunger.
One Champion in Tennessee stated:
I have just recently signed up to help feed the hungry. I once had to depend on the help of the local food bank when I was out of work. One business closed their doors and the other business was not a good fit for me. It was terrifying that I had to depend on others for food. I am very appreciative for all the help I received during my time of need. I am now slowly recovering with a new job I have had for the past several months as an elderly care specialist.
I know firsthand what it feels like when you have no food and do not want to ask others for help. Without the local food banks and churches to help me get back on my feet and able to care for myself, I do not know what would have happened.
L.W. is a Hunger Champion, she says:
There are a lot of people out there starving, and I try to do as much as I can to feed the hungry children. As a single mom myself, I know how difficult it can be, which is why I support hunger relief programs. I often volunteer at some of the churches when they need volunteers. I presently have custody of my niece and also have my youngest son still at home. They are receiving the free lunches at school, and I have also been on the WIC program many years back when my three children were younger. There are a lot of teenage mothers out there who need this help and could not afford the formula that their babies needed without it.
At one time, my children and I received food stamps and medical, but we were taken off because they said that I made too much money working. Now I do have health insurance from work but no drug coverage, and I do without it to buy food that we need. These programs are important, especially to single mother like myself. Please increase funding.
One Hunger Champion states:
We became involved with volunteering for Second Harvest after retirement, for about the past eight months I worked by boxing food for them. A lot of people need to come in to Second Harvest because of the economy. A fair amount of those people are the elderly. Not only do they not have a lot of income to get by on, but their health is not terribly good, and they have many medications they must take.
Sometimes for them, it is a question of whether or not to take their blood pressure medication or to eat for the week. These circumstances are the ones I feel particularly bad about. These people have worked so hard during their lives, but because of circumstances beyond their control, they must choose between eating and buying their necessary medications.
With any programs that are designed to help the elderly out, it seems like these are the first ones to get cut. Ones to support food programs should never meet this fate. Even though I am back to work, I still volunteer with Second Harvest in with food distribution. It is not a lot to ask.
Feeding America invites you to become a member of our Hunger Champion Team!
As a Hunger Champion, you might:
- Take a leadership role in your local community
- Become actively engaged in helping your local food banks
- Develop personal relationships with legislators
- Engage with the media
- Attend local events
- Make personal phone calls or write personal letters to your legislators
Become a Hunger Champion! Take a moment now to join our Hunger Champions Team
Legislative Update—Bolstering Our Food Nutrition Programs
On October 7 and 8, the House and Senate passed the Agriculture Appropriations Bill for Fiscal Year 2010, which will now go to President Obama’s desk to be signed into law. This bill bolsters our country’s food nutrition programs, making substantial improvements in the areas of nutrition and food assistance.
In addition, the final legislation extends the Child Nutrition Reauthorization through September 30, 2010, giving the House Committee on Education and Labor and the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry an additional year to develop and finalize the updated legislation authorizing child nutrition programs.
$82.782 billion were appropriated for domestic nutrition assistance, including:
- TEFAP Commodity Funding: $248 million in mandatory commodity funding that will provide emergency food and nutrition assistance to low-income needy persons and the elderly.
- Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP (formerly Food Stamps): $58.2 billion that will provide food assistance for millions of low-income people, including funding to increase elderly participation.
- Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC): Over $7 billion in mandatory funding that will give needy women, infants, and children benefits to promote a healthy pregnancy for mothers and a healthy start for their children.
- Commodity Supplemental Food Program: $171.4 million that will provide nutritious food to more than half a million low-income women, infants, children, and elderly citizens struggling with rising food costs.
- Food Bank Infrastructure Grants: $6 million that has been provided for the first time to fund the food bank infrastructure grants that were authorized in the 2008 Farm Bill. The Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service will be developing guidelines regarding application for this grant funding.
- Additionally, the bill includes provisions for a number of child nutrition-specific projects, including: After-School At-Risk Suppers; Summer Food demonstration projects; feeding children when schools are closed due to a pandemic; exempting combat pay from Child Nutrition Program eligibility; and grants to improve direct certification for school meals.
Feeding America thanks you for taking action to support federal programs aimed at ending hunger. Your efforts have had a direct impact on the success of this bill!
To see how your legislators voted, read the Final Vote Results for the House and the Senate.
Stay tuned for more legislative updates. There is still much work to be done. Child Nutrition Reauthorization still looms on the horizon, and we need your help to deliver a strong and unified message in support of child nutrition programs!