Feel Good Friday - U.S. Hunger

With Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits on hold and a variety of holidays coming up, it seems like a great time to highlight the work being done by U.S. Hunger.

Founded as Feeding Children Everywhere in 2010 and headquartered in Longwood, Florida, the first project of U.S. Hunger was sending food to Haiti in response to the 7.0 magnitude earthquake, which displaced 1.3 million people. 

Recognizing that 1 in 10 households struggle with food insecurity, now the mission of U.S. Hunger is “feeding families today and uniting them to a healthier tomorrow. Here’s how they do it. 

The Full Cart program is a virtual food drive. Individuals and corporations make a monetary donation and U.S. Hunger partners with community-based organizations to provide individuals and families boxes with shelf-stable food and fresh produce. Hunger Projects are high-energy meal packing events good for groups who want to make a difference in the fight against hunger. This video is a glimpse into what it looks like - hairnets and confetti together at last!

U.S. Hunger also ships containers packed with meals and supplies to partners in 53 countries around the world and provides disaster relief where it’s needed whether that means mobilizing volunteers or raising funds to ship food.

Since they began, U.S. Hunger has distributed over 191 million meals and more than 157,000 food carts to hungry people across the globe thanks to the help of over 800,000 volunteers Looking at this 2024 impact video, you can see some of the 88,414 volunteers who participated in 281 hunger projects and packaged over 18 million meals last year. You can read individual impact stories here.

If you’d like to help U.S. Hunger provide healthy meals to those in need there are many ways you can get involved. Volunteer your time, donate your money, shop for merch and raise awareness on social media. Follow U.S. Hunger on Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn and subscribe to their YouTube channel.

Feel Good Friday - California Association of Food Banks

As Thanksgiving approaches and many of us are preparing to spend time with family, friends, and food, I want to highlight an organization focused on food insecurity, the California Association of Food Banks.

Founded in 1995 and headquartered in Oakland, California, the mission of the California Association of Food Banks (CAFB) is “to end hunger in California”.

According to information on their website, although California produces nearly half of the nation’s fruits and vegetables, over 5 million people in Californian face hunger on a daily basis. One out of every four of those people is a child. The team at CAFB believes that “having enough to eat is a basic human right, and that ending hunger in our state is both essential and possible.” Here’s what they’re doing about it.

CAFB works with a network of 41 member food banks around the state to build their capacity and make them more effective. They also provide more than 200+ million pounds of fresh fruits and vegetables which is recovered from California’s fields, transported to the member food banks, and distributed to people in need. Details about this program are in this 3-minute Farm to Family video. 

Another area of their work is connecting people to the state’s food stamp program, CalFresh. Only 70% of eligible households get CalFresh, meaning 2 million qualified people are not receiving these nutrition benefits. CAFB partners help nearly 30,000 households apply for CalFresh benefits every year.

CAFB also improves public policy around food bank support, disaster resilience, child nutrition, CalFresh, food waste and poverty. Their legislative partners work to pass state bills and secure state funding that will help to end hunger and alleviate poverty in California. Finally, there are special initiatives such as improving food access for farm workers and preparing for and responding to disasters such as wildfires.

If you’d like to help the California Association of Food Banks achieve their vision of “a well-nourished and hunger-free California, where all people have enough food to lead a healthy life”, there are many ways to do so. Volunteer at one of the member food banks, make a donation, and amplify their work on social media. Like the CAFB Facebook page and follow them on Instagram and LinkedIn.

Feel Good Friday - Masbia Soup Kitchen Network

Today’s Feel Good Friday falls during Hanukkah, so we’re highlighting a group that’s raising money to feed 3,000 families in need this Hanukkah season, the Masbia Soup Kitchen Network. 

Founded in 2005, Masbia is a nonprofit soup kitchen network and food pantry located in New York. It’s Brooklyn’s first and only kosher soup kitchen! 
 
The vision of the founders was “a clean, well-lit and attractive place where poor men, women, and children could eat nourishing kosher meals daily for free.” The first location was a restaurant-style environment with volunteer waiters serving people their meals. 
 
Since then, Masbia has expanded beyond the original soup kitchen to include three additional locations with both a dine-in option and a food pantry. Here, through their weekend take-home package program, they give out bags of much-needed groceries every week to those with not enough food at home.
 
The team at Masbia has seen a 500% increase in demand since the start of the pandemic. They are now distributing food to 1,500 families each day, which comes to 2 million meals a year! You can watch a recent news story about Masbia providing food for Thanksgiving at this link.
 
If you live in New York and want to support the work of Masbia you can volunteer. The rest of us can make a donation and amplify their work on social media by liking their Facebook page and following them on Twitter@Masbia.

Feel Good Friday - Feeding America

I hope this Feel Good Friday comes as part of a fantastic Thanksgiving weekend for you. With much of the focus of this holiday on both family and food, I want to highlight an organization that is Feeding America.

As succinctly explained on Twitter, Feeding America is a "nation-wide hunger relief charity helping more than 46 million Americans yearly including 12 million children and 7 million seniors." You can read some statistics on hunger here. The quick story is that 72 billion pounds of edible food goes to waste each year in the U.S. while 1 in 8 Americans struggle with hunger.

Feeding America came about in 1979 when Van Hengel, who established a food bank in Arizona in the 1960s, created a national organization for food banks called Second Harvest. The name was changed to Feeding America in 2008 to reflect the mission of the organization and it's since grown into a network of 200 food banks and 60,000 food pantries and meal programs across the country.

Here's how it works. "Feeding America secures donations from national food and grocery manufacturers, retailers, shippers, packers and growers and from government agencies and other organizations." The food is shipped to and stored at food banks across the country who distribute it through pantries and meal programs like the SF-Marin Food Bank. There are also a variety of programs such as Disaster Food Assistance, a Backpack Program and a Senior Grocery Program, all of which you can read about here.

Last year, with their partners, Feeding America provided food for 4 billion people! To see what this looks like in action, watch this short video. When not distributing food, Feeding America also raises public awareness about hunger, conducts research and has policy staff in Washington DC to advocate for programs that protect people from hunger.

To support their work you can take action by becoming a volunteer, an advocate, or donating some cash. You can also show your appreciation by liking their Facebook page and following them on Twitter @FeedingAmerica. "Together we can solve hunger".