NEWS

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.

Following Hurricane Sandy, New York City opened seven "Restoration Centers" in the neighborhoods hit hardest by the storm in a "comprehensive effort to connect residents and businesses impacted by Hurricane Sandy with financial, health, environmental, nutritional and residential services, as well as FEMA reimbursement processing." Erika, a counselor at the Restoration Center in Gravesend, Brooklyn, called the National Hunger Hotline after meeting with a woman whose house had been partially destroyed by the floodwaters over ten weeks ago. She was sleeping in the bedroom on the second floor of her home, but her kitchen, located on the first floor, was unusable. Low on cash and without a place to store and prepare food, she was eating an average of only one meal every two days, Erika told the Hotline Advocate. Using listings from the local food bank, the Hotline advocate was able to tell Erika the hours and locations of soup kitchens and food pantries in Gravesend so her client would be able to eat adequate meals.

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 español. The Hotline is funded in part by the USDA Food and Nutrition Service.    

The annual National Hunger Free Communities Summit is a one day event providing current and aspiring Hunger Free Community organizers- nonprofit, religious, private sector and public sector leaders committed to ending hunger in their communities- a forum to hear from local and national experts about innovative models for building community coalitions to end hunger; share lessons learned and successful strategies; and learn about best practices to coordinate hunger relief, leverage available resources, and implement multi-year plans. WhyHunger's Jessica Powers will be presenting on a panel about nutrition education at this year's summit, so we hope you will join us.

The Hunger Free Communities Summit will be held in Washington, DC, on March 2, 2013. Registration costs $100 and will be open until Monday, February 18, 2013. Click here to learn more and register. The Alliance to End Hunger is also offering a limited number of need-based travel scholarships to participants who could not otherwise attend. Successful scholarship applicants will have their registration fee waived. If you intend to apply for a travel scholarship, you must do so before registering for the Summit. Scholarships will be reviewed on a rolling basis every Wednesday until the window for scholarship applications closes on February 11, or until all scholarship funding has been allocated.

The National Anti-Hunger Policy Conference follows on March 3-5. Attendees will learn about new and innovative approaches to ending hunger, have opportunities to network, and participate in a lobby day with their elected officials on the 5th. To register, go to http://www.antihungerpolicyconference.org/.

In his latest Civil Eats blog post, former Community Food Security Coalition Executive Director Andy Fisher explores the role of Wal-Mart's anti-hunger pledge: is it "green washing" or are they another legitimate partner in the fight against hunger? Every non-profit must decide who they do business with and establishing corporate funding guidelines is a good place to start. In an upcoming issue, we will have more on the process of creating corporate funding guidelines. We'd love to hear your feedback on this article or how your organization determines appropriate corporate funding partners.

On May 12, 2010, in the U.S. Capitol, Wal-Mart Vice Chairman Eduardo Castro Wright made a stunning announcement. His company would donate $2 billion in food and cash over a five-year period to "fight hunger in America." Key Congress members and anti-hunger organization executives gushed on stage about Wal-Mart's leadership in this arena.

Fast forward two and a half years. We're half-way through the time period of this commitment. How has Wal-Mart done on their pledge? It's a good time to hold the retail giant accountable. According to the company's Web site, it has distributed 594 million pounds of free food, about halfway toward their goal of 1.2 billion pounds. According to Mike Moran, Oregon Food Bank's Food Resource Development Director, most of the food they receive from Wal-Mart is of excellent nutritional value, but no longer sellable because of looming expiration dates or declining quality.

With regard to its cash donations, Wal-Mart has distributed $122 million in anti-hunger grants, also about halfway toward their $250 million goal. Overall, the vast majority of Wal-Mart's anti-hunger funding has been directed to food banks and food pantries. Of the grants listed in their 2010 and 2011 tax returns, 74 percent went to food banks and pantries, 12 percent to senior feeding programs, six percent to nutrition education, and the remaining seven percent to advocacy organizations. The choice of food banks and pantries as Wal-Mart's primary non-profit partners is emblematic of the proclivity for corporate philanthropists to fund middle of the road organizations that deal with symptoms (hunger relief) instead of solutions (eliminating the root causes of hunger).

While corporate America has become more focused on using their donations as a tool for enhancing a company's political and financial standing (known as strategic philanthropy), in general, these giving programs have not been completely subsumed to business interests. In Wal-Mart's case however, the purposefulness of its giving transcends garden-variety strategic philanthropic goals of broadly building a firm's image or improving employee morale. It is much more targeted, and as such more brazen than virtually any other company's giving, except perhaps Phillip Morris (which used its giving programs to combat anti-smoking ordinances).

Read more at http://civileats.com/2013/01/10/fighting-hunger-or-causing-hunger-a-mid-term-look-at-wal-marts-2-billion-commitment/.

Our publication, Cooking Up Community: Nutrition Education in Emergency Food Programs, is a living document. The guide is part of an ongoing effort to aggregate and make available critical resources for emergency food providers. You can email us at nhc@whyhunger.org to let us know how we can continue to improve this resource. In the coming months, we will be posting an appendix to the guide (at the above link) with new profiles and tips. Here is an example of what's to come:  

 FOODBANK OF SANTA BARBARA COUNTY 

Santa Barbara, CA

DESCRIPTION

The Foodbank of Santa Barbara County is a mid-sized food bank that serves a quarter of the Santa Barbara County population, approximately 100,000 people. Part of their mission is to improve the nutritional health of all residents of Santa Barbara County because everyone can benefit from optimal health. To accomplish this, the Foodbank has transformed itself into an organization that is about advocacy, empowerment, preventive health, and ultimately, community food security.

The Foodbank took into account that when parents were not adept at preparing food, the potential for increased nutritional value derived from foods was minimized, and families were still hungry. Their capacity includes a combination of self-efficacy, the belief that one has the skills and knowledge to perform a particular activity, and the belief that certain behaviors, in this case preparing food, can influence health outcomes. These issues required the Foodbank to change their educational approach and see every food that they distributed as an opportunity to educate their clients and support their mission.

NUTRITION EDUCATION ACTIVITIES

The Foodbank of Santa Barbara County's philosophy on nutrition education is continuous food learning throughout a person's life. As Serena Fuller, PhD, RD, the Foodbank's Health Education and Evaluation manager puts it, "We should always be educating and exposing people to food. Open mind, open palate. It's about learning and adapting throughout the lifespan."

WHAT MAKES THEM UNIQUE

The Foodbank uses a food literacy approach rather than a standard nutrition education approach. Food literacy is about experiencing food, getting exposure to food, learning how to prepare food in the most healthful and nutritious ways, and exposing people to resources available to acquire and grow their own food. The term food literacy resonates more with the communities in which the Food Bank serves. "We don't talk about serving size, don't focus on what foods we can't have, but on what foods we can have," states Fuller. "There are a lot of opinions about food and I respect that. Food is about family, culture, coping, and socialization. The challenge is about making food that is highly personal for a wide audience. At farmer's markets I used to only have one recipe on how to cook a particular food item, now I give people two or three recipes. But there still needs to be some standardization so we can evaluate our programs."

Best Practices for Health Care Providers Working to End Child Hunger   

Share Our Strength's No Kid Hungry Center for Best Practices provides the tools and resources needed to help elected officials and their staff, educators and community leaders achieve success in fighting childhood hunger.

Here are some of the Center's new resources for those working with the health care community to end child hunger:

• The Fighting Hunger Through Health Care: a Seamless Solution brief outlines different roles hospitals and health care providers can play in ending childhood hunger and describes innovative efforts already underway across the country.

• Health care centers are seen as a place of trust and authority. In the Nutrition Education as Preventative Health Care - Case Study we see that by adding nutrition education, health care centers can help patients incorporate nutrition education as part of their daily routine.

• The Nutrition Education for Improved Health - Case Study illustrates that by teaching patients the skills they need to make healthy food choices, health care providers have another tool to use in combating chronic disease, food insecurity and malnutrition.

Learn what works in the fight against childhood hunger and discover toolkits, case studies, hunger stats, issue briefs, reports and more at BestPractices.NoKidHungry.org.

PS It Matters

 

In 2012, WhyHunger began a partnership with PS It Matters, an online specialty food and gift store that was founded on a simple idea - you can purchase everyday items you want and help those in our country who are hungry. With every order, 15% of the purchase amount is donated to the food bank or food pantry of the customer's choice. PS It Matters is excited to work with community-based groups in the WhyHunger network. Right now, there are two ways that you can get involved to start raising money for your anti-hunger organization:

• Reach out to your partners and supporters to tell them about PS It Matters. By tapping into the gifts that many are already planning to purchase for employees, customers, clients and prospects throughout the year, it is possible to create monthly reoccurring revenue to support your work with no additional expense to your organization or partners. By reaching out to local real estate agencies and car dealerships, for example, some organizations have been able to make over $1000 per month.

For more information and advice on how your organization can benefit from a partnership with PS It Matters, visit psitmatters.com or contact Jim Brennan at jimb@psitmatters.com or 207-351-6903.

Raising Awareness and Funds with Artists

Having Brandi Carlile speak on behalf of the issue of hunger in our community to an audience that may not have known the depth & breath of the issue helped us reach new potential advocates, volunteers and donors.

-Kaye de Lancey, The Jacobs and Cushman San Diego Food Bank

WhyHunger's Artists Against Hunger & Poverty program enlists musicians, the music community and fans to help raise funds and awareness in the fight against hunger and poverty. For many years the Artists Agaunst Hunger & Poverty program has supported our local EFP partners by pairing them up with musicians who are on tour. A great example of this type of opportunity is the recent partnership with singer/songwriter Brandi Carlile. Brandi is especially connected to the plight of food banks and food pantries as she herself experienced hunger as a child and utilized the services of her local food pantry. On every concert date during Brandi's 2012 winter tour, WhyHunger invited a local EFP to set up a table on site at Brandi's concert, collect donations from fans and educate the audience on the vital work that they are doing in the area. Brandi was kind enough to offer an autographed prize package as an incentive for her fans to donate. These tours are a unique way to introduce organizations to new audiences and to artists. If you're interested in being chosen for an artist campaign please register or update your registration in the WhyHunger Find Food database .

The average money raised on site during the Brandi Carlile tour was $325. Some groups collected $500 or more from their fundraising efforts. Many groups reported that the best part of their experience was interacting with the audience and educating them on their role in the community. And sometimes amazing things happen at these shows- the Second Harvest Food Bank of Metrolina in Charlotte, NC received a $10,000 donation from an anonymous donor!  

Harry was interested in the root causes of hunger and poverty and asking the "why" questions. Neither we nor the author advocate for eradicating existing private or public ways of addressing hunger. However, we work with many emergency food providers who are asking questions about chronic hunger in spite of their efforts over the past several decades. In fact, we heard about the book from our readers.

While the title is intended to push some buttons, Lupin's book is actually a thoughtful examination of how faith-based charity can do better and the types of questions and internal dialogue that can transform organizations, communities and ultimately, hunger.

The Clearinghouse newsletter is meant, among other things, to encourage conversation and dialogue about transforming communities, community food security and the emergency food system. We see critical thinking, lively debate and reflective practice as a necessary part of systems change.

We want to hear from you! Email us at  nhc@whyhunger.org.

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