Stories from the National Hunger Hotline: Kids Helping Kids
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The National Hunger Hotline (NHH), a service of WhyHunger's National Hunger Clearinghouse, provides real-time referrals for people in need across the U.S. to emergency food and assistance programs. Receiving an average of 700 calls per month, the NHH is a portal to information, assistance, and resources, ultimately empowering families and individuals to meet their vital needs including fresh, healthy food. In Stories from the Hotline, we share some of the experiences of callers and our efforts to support them.
A twelve year old girl from California recently called the Hotline. Sara had made the No Kid Hungry Pledge with Share our Strength, adding her voice to the national movement of people committed to ending childhood hunger in America by 2015. She had received an email with the Hotline's number along with information about the USDA's summer meals program. Sara called the Hotline to see if there were any summer feeding sites in her community. Her small town had twelve sites, which pleased her. She plans to post flyers in her town so that other kids in her community won't go hungry.
The National Hunger Hotline 1-866-3 HUNGRY and 1-877-8 HAMBRE (1-866-348-6479 and 1-877-842-6273) refers people in need of emergency food assistance to food pantries, government programs, and model grassroots organizations that work to improve access to healthy, nutritious food, and build self-reliance. Help is available on Monday through Friday from 9am-6pm EST. Hablamos espaņol. The Hotline is funded in part by the USDA Food and Nutrition Service.
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Summer Food Service Programs
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Summer brings the highest rates of childhood hunger in the U.S. With children out of school, some that receive free school breakfast and lunch are going without, and many of them are skipping meals and eating less than during the school year. The Summer Food Service Program provides funding to serve meals and snacks to children and teens to fill that nutrition gap. Schools, local governments, National Youth Sports Programs and nonprofit organizations can operate summer feeding sites, combining an activity with a safe place to get food.
WhyHunger partners with the USDA to promote the Summer Food Service Program to ensure that more children and their families have access to free, nutritious food during the summer months. Families in need can call our National Hunger Hotline at 1-866-3 HUNGRY or text 'food' to 877-877 to be connected with a summer feeding site in their community.
Help spread the word! You can find posters and web banners here for the Hotline - spread the word to your local schools, print out and hang the posters in libraries and other community centers. People can also call WhyHunger's National Hunger Hotline, 1-866-3 HUNGRY, or go online to www.whyhunger.org/findfood to be connected with food pantries, government nutrition programs, and other emergency food assistance this summer and throughout the year.
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Run It Forward Campaign
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We are excited to announce a new partnership with Run It Forward, an organization whose focus is to educate children across the country on fitness, nutrition and the value of health and dental care. On May 14, 2012, ten of the nation's top ultra runners, accompanied by three moms, embarked on a 2,400 mile run along Historic Route 66 to raise awareness and provide access to health services at some of America's most underserved schools. The tour, "Run It Forward," the national arm of the Sacramento based non-profit "Be Change," stopped in eight states from Chicago to California to hold a Health and Empowerment Expo at eight schools. At each school, WhyHunger had one of our emergency food provider partners on site to offer participants free food and resources that are in their local community. Thanks to Jacoby Shaddix from Papa Roach and his wife, Kelly, who ran along the route, for involving us in this great cause.
Watch this video from Run It Forward to learn more.
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USDA Updates
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The Access Pantry Network: A Model of Collaboration
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The Access Pantry Network consists of 75 food pantries spread across Kent County, Michigan. The county is divided into 11 geographic serving areas, each with one large pantry that acts as a hub for the smaller support pantries that surround it. The support pantries receive referrals from the pantry hub and report data back. They also receive food supplies and resources from the hub. It works like a web of connection; each pantry has a vital place in the network as it serves its neighborhood specifically.
Access is the entity that coordinates the service of the pantries by housing the database which links all 11 hubs. The database generates reports based on food services which are used to give an accurate picture of food assistance in Kent County. Access also helps the pantries develop programs that go beyond hunger to address root issues of poverty. The Access Pantry Network provides SNAP outreach, employment help, mentoring, tutoring, casework and other services to the community. Additionally, Access facilitates several large food drives, a holiday program, and an annual Hunger Walk that each of the pantries participates in and benefit from. Access provides community resource information, volunteer recruitment, and representation of the Pantries within the Network to local agencies.
This collaborative partnership has yielded fantastic leverage within the community. The Access Pantry Network has been approached by many entities eager to work with the pantries such as the local public school system which utilized the network to sign up and refer families to summer feeding programs. The network has also worked with the local health system to create a program in which health practitioners refer low income individuals with 1 of 7 chronic diseases to the Pantry Network. The local Department of Human Services trains staff and volunteers in conducting SNAP outreach at the pantries and in tracking SNAP applications through the Pantry Network. Additionally, the Pantry Network is often given block grants to be shared amongst themselves and also benefit from large food drives and share media attention collectively.
The unified front spans every area of service - community members and donors can give to one source that reaches the entire county, county wide reporting can be generated quickly and efficiently, and individuals in need can call one number to find food assistance nearest to them. The Access Pantry Network has found that together we can serve our community better.
For more information about implementing collaborative processes in your community go to www.accessofwestmichigan.org or contact Hunger Response Director Emma Rosauer at Emma@accessofwestmichigan.org.
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2013 Harry Chapin Self-Reliance Awards
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It's that time of year again! WhyHunger is looking to honor, support and celebrate the leading U.S.-based grassroots organizations working to transform their communities through healthy food access and social and economic justice. Applications are now available for the 2013 Harry Chapin Self-Reliance Awards. Recipients receive cash awards of up to $10,000, are honored at the annual WhyHunger Chapin Awards Dinner in New York City and are invited to attend a networking day with current and past winners!
Tell us how your organization is making an impact! The deadline to apply is June 29, 2012. CLICK HERE for more information, guidelines and a downloadable Microsoft Word application. For further questions call 212.629.3227 or email hcrsa@whyhunger.org.
Be sure to check out the 2012 winners on our blog!
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Food Stamps, Follow the Money: Are Corporations Profiting from Hungry Americans?
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Michele Simon, public health attorney and author of Appetite for Profit, just released a new report, "Food Stamps, Follow the Money: Are Corporations Profiting from Hungry Americans?" In the report, she asks challenging questions about the ways that corporations benefit directly and indirectly from a program that supports low-income Americans and farmers. She makes a compelling case for transparency and asks tough questions about accountability. In the words of our Executive Director, Bill Ayres: Many of us who have been involved in the US anti-hunger movement over the last several decades have worked through broad alliances - including with food companies, supermarkets and others. With these partners, we agreed to disagree on many issues so that we could work together to support federal nutrition programs, especially SNAP (food stamps) and the child nutrition programs. I believe we must continue those alliances - and at the same time challenge many of our food business allies to join us in fighting the tragic epidemic of obesity and related diseases that are harming many of the very people we seek to help. Michele Simon's new report, "Food Stamps: Follow the Money," investigates the profits that corporations make on federal nutrition programs. Her findings may shock many, even those in the anti-hunger movement. They should not deter us from working with our long-term allies to open a new level of dialogue on how we can all work together, not just for food- but nutritious food for all. What do you think? We want to hear from you! Email us at nhc@whyhunger.org. |
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The Hands that Feed Us
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WhyHunger congratulates our partner, the Food Chain Workers Alliance, on its groundbreaking new report, The Hands That Feed Us: Challenges and Opportunities for Workers Along the Food Chain. It's the first-ever comprehensive report looking at wages and working conditions of workers across the entire food chain - a sector that employs 20 million people in the U.S., comprising one-sixth of the nation's workforce. The report exposes that food workers face higher levels of poverty and food insecurity than the rest of the U.S. workforce, while facing discrimination, abuse, and other forms of exploitation.
The report was launched at the Food Workers and Food Justice Conference in New York City on June 6, 2012. WhyHunger participated and had the opportunity to hear directly from restaurant workers, meatpacking workers, warehouse workers and others. Many have faced unbelievable abuses on the job and are courageously speaking out and joining with other workers across the food chain and allies to bring about change. These first-hand stories of workers, which are also reflected in the report, are a stark reminder of how far we have to go to achieve a truly fair food system-but are also a testimony to the resilience and capacity for change in those who feed us.
WhyHunger commits to strengthening our solidarity with food and farm workers and encourages everyone in our network to join us. Raising the minimum wage, supporting paid sick days and enforcing penalties for wage theft are simple policy changes that would have a big impact on reducing hunger and poverty in this country. Read the report, spread the word, and join food chain workers in their struggles for a food system that is fair for all.
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Food Policy Councils: An Effective Way to Change the Food System
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Food policy councils (FPCs) are one of the most effective ways for a community to gain control of its food system. Since no U.S. city, state or county has a Department of Food, responsibilities for addressing various aspects of the food system tend to be scattered around various local, state and federal government agencies. Food policy councils put food issues at the forefront of conversation.
More and more FPCs are being established around the country - because the councils often have the capacity to make real and effective changes at the local level. By bringing together stakeholders from local farmers to government officials, FPCs are able to address the big picture of a community's food system and gain a full perspective of its challenges.
To highlight the accomplishments of food policy councils and provide help in starting one, we have updated our food policy council topic on the Food Security Learning Center. New additions include capacity building resources focusing on funding, building membership and understanding what a FPC can accomplish, from updating zoning laws to establishing food literacy campaigns. Additionally, we have updated our Program Profiles to include Detroit's Food Policy Council, the Oakland Food Policy Council and the Mvsoke Food and Fitness Policy Council. All three are great examples of how councils can make a huge impact within a community and positively change the food system. Click here for all the info you need - and let us know in the comments if you have a resource to add! |
Sharing Your Story
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Have you had any recent successes in food sourcing at your food pantry that you want to share? What challenges are you facing? Is there anything that you want to learn more about?
We want to hear from you! Email us at nhc@whyhunger.
Contributors: Marissa Gustafson, Jessica Powers, Emma Rosauer of Access of West Michigan, Christina Schiavoni.
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