1 of 6 Americans Are Going Hungry

19,739 of us have promised to do
something about it. How will you help?

I PROMISE TO:

 

We Can End This
With Your Help

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Hunger in New York State

With each Tyson Foods truck delivery, we have asked our local partners to tell the story of hunger in their state and showcase the good work of volunteers and donors. On Thursday, July 1, we will deliver a truckload to one of the food banks serving the Empire State – Foodlink in Rochester. Here is their story:

The phones ring constantly at Foodlink. I am not envious of our receptionist’s job. We receive hundreds of phone calls each week asking an array of questions. Within the last year the most common question asked over the phone is, “where can I get emergency food assistance?” followed up with an explanation that usually tugs at your heart strings. The economic downturn has increased the number of people experiencing food insecurity from urban to suburban communities nationwide.

New York State follows the national trend. The Feeding America network member food banks have experienced a rise in demand.  Statewide, 2.3 million residents rely on emergency food assistance annually. That breaks down to approximately 570,000 different people that turn to New York food banks’ network of agencies for emergency food assistance weekly. Emergency food programs include food pantries, soup kitchens, and emergency shelters serving short term residents. Among all client households that receive emergency food 70% are food insecure, 31% of which have very low food security.

State findings from Hunger in America 2010:

  • 37% of the members of households in New York are children under 18 years old
  • 6% of the members of households are children age 0 to 5 years
  • 8% of the members of households are elderly
  • About 23% of clients are non-Hispanic white, 42% are non-Hispanic black, 27% are Hispanic, and the rest are from other racial groups
  • 36% of households include at least one employed adult
  • 66% have incomes below the federal poverty level
  • 7% are homeless

Economic hardships have caused many clients to make unwanted choices. Deciding between food and other necessities such as mortgage or rent payments, utilities, medical bills and transportation has become a sad reality.

Statewide findings from Hunger In America 2010:

  • 40% of clients in New York report having to choose between paying for food and paying for utilities or heating fuel
  • 39% had to choose between paying for food and paying their rent or mortgage
  • 29% had to choose between paying for food and paying for medicine or medical care
  • 34% had to choose between paying for food and paying for transportation
  • 14% had to choose between paying for food and paying for gas for a car

Locally, 10% or 125,000 people in our service area receive emergency food assistance annually. Within this statistic 36% of our clients are under the age of 18. This percentile is consistent with state and national findings.

This increase in demand has increased the need for food donations as well as volunteer hours. We are fortunate to have a service area filled with reliable compassionate volunteers and philanthropists.  Annually, thousands of volunteers donate 20,000 hours to assist in food sorting, categorizing and packing. Without our volunteers we wouldn’t be able to operate and facilitate the increase our network of agencies is facing. The poundage we receive through food drives have increased significantly over the past year which has allowed us to increase the amount of food that reaches our agencies.

Local findings from Hunger In America 2010:

  • 36% of the members of households served by Foodlink, Inc are children under 18 years old
  • 9% of the members of  households are children age 0 to 5 years
  • 5% of the members of households are elderly
  • About 49% of clients are non-Hispanic white, 37% are non-Hispanic black, 11% are Hispanic, and the rest are from other racial groups
  • 26% of households include at least one employed adult
  • 82% have incomes below the federal poverty level
  • 7% are homeless

Last year Foodlink distributed over 10 million pounds of food to a network of 450 agencies in a ten county service area.  Though foodlink is a food bank and our key operation is the redistribution of food, we also have an innovative network of initiatives. We educate and train our clients on nutrition as well as provide resources for them to become self sufficient. We have an array of child nutrition programs; Kids Cafe, Summer Meals and BackPack Programs that provide nutritious foods to at risk youth.

Our  delivery with Tyson Foods is in conjunction with our Annual Summer Meals Kick-Off with the Rochester Rhinos Soccer Team.

When school is out during the summer, many children no longer have access to free or reduced priced school meals. The USDA Summer Food Service Program is intended to fill this gap, but many families do not know this program is available to all Rochester children. Last summer, Foodlink served over 50,000 meals at 40 different site locations throughout the city. This year we already have over 50 sites registered for summer meals.  Freshwise Catering, our food service entity, raises the bar on institutional food by preparing meals with lean meats, whole grains, and fresh produce from local vendors.  Summer Meals with the Rhinos will showcase the importance  healthy food while educating Rochester’s children on health, fitness and wellness.

Recently, a study released by the United Way stated that 40% of Rochester’s youth live below the poverty line. Foodlink believes the WeCanEndThis Campaign, and all of its partners – especially Tyson Foods, play a vital role in helping end not only hunger but childhood hunger.

Food banks of New York State:

  • Regional Food Bank of Northeastern New York: Latham, NY
  • City Harvest: New York City, NY
  • Food Bank of Western New York: Buffalo, NY
  • Food Bank for New York City: New York City, NY
  • Food Bank of Central New York: East Syracuse, NY
  • Food Bank of the Southern Tier: Elmira, NY
  • Long Island Cares, Inc: Hauppauge, NY
  • Island Harvest: Mineola, NY
  • Food Bank for Westchester, Inc.: Millwood, NY
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And the CauseLab Idea Contest Winners are…

We are very grateful for the ideas everyone submitted to the CauseLab idea contest.  Ending hunger in America is an achievable goal and this contest has shown the innovation we need to solve it is all around us.  Thank you for making this such a success.

After reviewing the sixty ideas submitted to the CauseLab idea contest, we have decided on the winners for Best Idea and the Best Collaborator.  Here’s the story as told in collaboration with our partners at Goodzuma.

Best Idea: Gap Calculator by JC Dwyer
Gap Calculator asks us to better measure the hunger need in America and identify existing resources as the first steps toward a solution.  The Gap Calculator would allow us to answer the questions:

  • Where is the need?
  • How much food will we need to fill the gap?
  • And, where will the food come from?

Functionally, the gap calculator combines data from multiple sources into an equation representing the totality of hunger relief in America. The equation can then be compared to need estimates calculated according to specific geographies. The ability to customize the Gap Calculator will show people how they can help end hunger in their own communities and its shareability will ensure that it is both a tool for empowerment and awareness.

JC Dwyer currently resides in San Antonio, TX and has worked with a variety of anti-hunger organizations and is the voice behind @TexansvsHunger on Twitter.  He told us that the inspiration for his idea comes from a quote he heard from New York City’s Mayor Bloomberg and paraphrased from the famous management guru Peter Drucker:

“If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.” – Mayor Mike Bloomberg

Honorable Mention: Family-to-Family by Pam Koner
The CauseLab was also an opportunity to highlight ideas that are already being implemented in the real world. For the past eight years, Family-to-Family has operated on the simple premise of connecting families with more to those with less.  Pam Koner and her all-volunteer team have launched a number of successful online family-to-family programs that have built greater empathy and understanding.  Here are but just a few of their programs:

Family Sponsorships – The program that started it all, families make a yearlong commitment of $31.21 per month to provide 7 dinner-type meals (including fruits & vegetables).

Birthdays in a Box – Families can help provide a mother with the supplies to throw her child a birthday party – something that isn’t always possible when times are tough.

Victory Garden Project – For those seeking to help in a more sustaining way, this program outfits a family in need with the tools and supplies to plant a garden of their own (including chickens) with the help of a local master gardener.

Building on their success, the Family-to-Family website is undergoing a major update that will be completed by the fall and will make it possible to scale their programs significantly.  Keep on the lookout for them — you might see their work in helping families in the Gulf Coast affected by the oil spill.

Best Collaborator: Shereen Brown
Great ideas come from the minds of people working together.  Not only did Shereen Brown submit three of her own ideas, she invested time and energy in helping to improve the ideas other contestants submitted. Shereen is from Boston, MA, and volunteers with all types of organizations and describes herself as someone who is “in tune to what is happening and what needs to happen for social change to occur.”

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Hunger in Indiana

With each Tyson Foods truck delivery, we have asked our local partners to tell the story of hunger in their state and showcase the good work of volunteers and donors. On Tuesday, June 22, we will deliver a truckload to benefit all the food banks serving the Hoosier State.  Our friends at the Second Harvest Food Bank of East Central Indiana in Muncie are serving as the lead local partner. Here is their story:

A man at a food distribution site in Indiana said he was there because, “My wife has cancer and our medical bills are so high we don’t have much left for food.” A young mother living in a household of ten said she was there to get food for her children; she had not eaten herself for two days. “Thank you so much” she said, “we really need this.”

Hunger has many faces in Indiana. Indiana regional food banks and the local charities with which they partner serve 700,000 low-income Hoosiers annually and nearly half are children and seniors. The clients served by Indiana’s food bank network are employed, unemployed, disabled, and elderly; they are rural, suburban and urban families. Many are single parents. Most are living far below the poverty line, and a growing number are falling from the middle class into poverty. Hunger is everywhere, but it is a problem that can be solved.

Indiana’s regional food banks along with the charities they support provide hands-on opportunities for thousands of Hoosiers to make a difference for neighbors in need. Volunteers pack boxes, fill shelves, labor at pantries, raise money, provide information, push brooms, enter data, consol clients, and advocate for hunger relief measures throughout Indiana. Donors support events, write checks, give food and provide a tremendous energy stream in the work of alleviating and ending hunger. The food industry from the farm to the distributor stands behind this statewide mobilization of resources as this critical network pulls together to feed neighbors in need.

It is not an easy job but as Indiana continues to feel the stress of a battered economy our residents are digging deeper and giving more to see that neighbors are fed. Hunger in America found that eleven percent of Hoosier households are food insecure – they just don’t have enough nutritionally adequate and safe foods or they do not have the ability or certainty to acquire foods in socially acceptable ways. Four percent of Hoosier households have very low food security, they are reducing food intake and disrupting eating patterns due to insufficient resources for food—they are hungry.

Statewide, more than 36 percent of client households are experiencing “very low food security” – referred to as hunger in federal statistical reports. This means that one or more household members don’t have enough food to eat.

An estimated 117,900 Hoosiers receive emergency food assistance each week from a food pantry, soup kitchen, or other agency served by the member food banks of Feeding Indiana’s Hungry, Inc. the state food bank association and Feeding America, the nation’s food bank network.

Among key findings of the Hunger in America 2010 Indiana State Report on emergency food distribution are the following:
• 16% of client households with seniors 65 or older have very low food security.
• 25% of adults in client households are working either full-time or part-time, and 33% of clients reported a job as the household’s main source of income.
• 2% of all households surveyed received government welfare assistance such as Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) in the month prior to the survey.
• 4% were homeless at the time of the survey.
• 24% of clients reported that they or someone in their household do not have access to health insurance.
• 57% of clients had unpaid medical or hospital bills.
• 37% of client households report receiving SNAP benefits.
• 64% of clients were non-Hispanic white clients; 30% were non-Hispanic black clients; 8% were Latino or Hispanic.

What is most distressing is that clients regularly must choose between food and other necessities, or may not eat at all from time to time. While we celebrate the tremendous work done by Indiana residents to end hunger, we recognize that there is much yet to do. Indiana’s food bank network provides critical services while mobilizing resources from throughout the state and the nation to end hunger is this land of plenty.

Food banks statewide include:
Food Bank of Northwest Indiana, Gary
Food Bank of Northern Indiana, South Bend
Food Finders Food Bank, Inc., Lafayette
Community Harvest Food Bank of Northeast Indiana, Ft. Wayne
Second Harvest Food Bank of East Central Indiana, Inc., Muncie
Gleaners Food Bank of Indiana, Indianapolis
Terre Haute Catholic Charities, Terre Haute
Hoosier Hills Food Bank, Bloomington
Tri-State Food Bank, Inc., Evansville

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Tallying the Votes for the CauseLab Idea Contest

We thank everyone who has helped make the virtual brainstorm a success!  Almost 60 new ideas were submitted for how we can end hunger in America.

Thanks goes to everyone submitting your original ideas and helping improve others.  Our panel of judges will be reviewing all the submittals and we plan to announce the winners in the coming week.  Let us know if you have any questions before then.

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CauseLab Idea Contest Ends Monday, May 31

By the end of Monday, you can help end hunger in America and add a few dollars to your bank account. Just by taking a few minutes to pitch your ideas and improve others’ ideas, you could win the $1,000 cash prize for best idea or $500 cash prize for best collaborator.

To date, 49 ideas have been submitted and 160 people have helped make them better. With the enormous shift in how we connect, communicate, and create, no one has the corner on the market of ideas.  In fact, we think the best ideas will come from people who are new to the issue of hunger.

Will you take a few minutes to help? You can make all the difference.

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