Fight Hunger, Spark Change

One of the things I’ve noticed in working with Walmart as a Walmart Mom this past year, is how Walmart is not afraid to command change.  As the nation’s largest retailer and a Fortune One company, they have a lot of pull with advertisers, suppliers, and partners.

I’ve been impressed with Walmart’s efforts to promote family friendly programming on TV.  Walmart chooses wisely where to spend their advertising dollars and strategically supports shows and movies that are great to watch as a family.

September is Hunger Action Month and Walmart’s current Fight Hunger, Spark Change campaign is another way they are helping families and encouraging their suppliers to work alongside them. Teaming up with six of the nation’s largest food companies (General Mills, Unilever, Hormel, ConAgra Foods, PepsiCo/Quaker and Kellogg Company), Walmart will provide $3.7 million to Feeding America, a nationwide network of food banks across America.  This amount is estimated to equal over 37 million meals for people in need of food assistance.

According to Feeding America, 1 in 7 Americans (including 12 million children), come to a Feeding America food bank for help.

Some hard facts about hunger in America:

• 1 in 6 Americans struggles with hunger

• 1 in 5 kids in the United States lives in a household with food insecurity, which means they do not always know where they will find their next meal

• In 2013, 14.7 million or approximately 20 percent of children in the U.S. lived in poverty

• Seven million elderly persons (10% of seniors) are served by Feeding America each year

• Sixty-five percent of working families that received SNAP (Federal govt. food assistance) were single-parent families

• In 2013, 49.1 million Americans lived in food insecure households, including 33.3 million adults and 15.8 million children

• Feeding America provides food assistance to an estimated 46.5 million people annually, including 12 million children and 7 million seniors

Making a Difference, One Food Bank at a Time

Provided by Food Share.

Feeding America is a network of food banks all across America, all with various names.  I had the opportunity to talk to Kristy Pollard of Food Share in Oxnard, CA, one of Feeding America’s food banks.  Kristy explained food banks as warehouse that supplies free food to 160 smaller food partners, similar to how Sam’s Club helps supply food/products to smaller business.  Although food banks have some programs themselves, they often work with other ministries and non-profit groups who give groceries and serve meals to those with food insecurity.

Food Share of Oxnard, through it’s partners, distribute 11 millions of food each to to 74,500 people throughout Ventura County.  With a staff of 350, but only 35 are paid, Food Share works with food partners, local farmers, government food commodities, groceries stores like Walmart, and companies and individuals to receive donations to feed the hungry in their area.

In addition to direct food donations, Food Share of Oxnard employs several innovative ways to secure food for the hungry.  First, they have their own garden in which they plant vegetables to help support their community’s senior citizens. Through this Senior support program, they bring seniors groceries every other week.  Many volunteers help in the planting, maintaining, and picking of vegetables in this vast garden.

Provided by Food Share.

Secondly, a number of people in the community volunteer the fruit crop from the trees in their backyards to Food Share.  Volunteers visit these people’s fruit trees gleam the fruit to bring back to the food bank to distribute.

Can you imagine how difficult it would be to store 11 million pounds of food throughout the year?  Food Share of Oxnard actually has 16 trucks they use to pick up food donations and deliver food to food hunger partners, like homeless shelters, food pantries, personal family food distribution places, etc.

Although Food Share focuses mostly of supplying the needs of their 160 hunger partnering organizations, they do conduct a few programs on their own.  In addition to the Senior support program,  another is their Kids’ Farmers Market where they partner with low-income housing groups and boys and girls clubs to educate students on the importance of nutrition.  Kids leave the session with a bundle of fresh vegetables to take home to their families.

Food Share also assists people with filling out Cal-Fresh SNAP program (welfare food stamps) applications to ensure they can feed their families.

Food Share of Oxnard is one of the food banks participating and hoping to win a grant in the Fight Hunger, Spark Change $37.5 million opportunity.  When asked what they would do with the grant money, Kristy explained that 25% of the proceeds would go directly to their hunger partners, helping to equip them with refrigeration and freezers to accommodate even food for those in need.  A portion of the remaining money would go towards providing more proteins like canned chicken and fish, as well as hams and turkeys during the Holidays.  The remainder of the money will help to support ongoing programs.

Fight Hunger, Spark Change – Please Vote!

To help increase hunger awareness among associates, customers, and suppliers, Walmart is asking for everyone’s help as to vote on which Feeding America food banks the grant money should go to.  The top 50 Feeding  America food banks with the most votes will receive funds from the $3.7 million donation.  According to Kathleen McLaughlin, president of the Walmart Foundation and Senior VP of Walmart Sustainability,

By engaging our associates, customers and suppliers in the fight against hunger, we can make a positive impact on this issue and ensure families have access to the healthier and nutritious food  they need.  Through this initiative, we’re giving everyone in America the opportunity to make a difference by simply voting online for their local food bank.”

Many people believe that the problems associated with hunger are confined to small pockets of society, certain areas of the country, or certain neighborhoods, but the reality is much different.  With lost jobs or single parents raising a family, meeting payments and bills can be overwhelming and the catch-up never seems to end.  Getting assistance from food partners in the community can help them make ends meet.

Please take a moment today and vote for a food bank to help gift them with some much needed funds.  According to Kristy from Food Share, “every dollar turns into $5 of food due to their efficiency, buying power, and volunteers,” so the money will go a long way.  You can vote everyday until October 5th.