Childhood Hunger
Latest News on May 2010
- May 27
Iron Chef Cat Cora Brings Help To Haiti -
It’s been four-plus months since the earthquake that wreaked havoc in Haiti, and though it no longer leads the news the Caribbean nation is still a long, long way from fully recovering from the devastation.
Zap2It Blog (Mentions Share Our Strength & Billy Shore) [Video]
May 25, 2010It’s been four-plus months since the earthquake that wreaked havoc in Haiti, and though it no longer leads the news the Caribbean nation is still a long, long way from fully recovering from the devastation.
There are signs of hope though. “Iron Chef America” star Cat Cora, along with former Sen. Bob Kerrey, Timberland CEO Jeff Swartz and Share Our Strength founder Billy Shore recently traveled there to do what they could to lend a hand, as you can see in the video above.
Cora, who’s also the founder of the relief group Chefs for Humanity, discusses delivering nutritional aid to those who badly need it. Kerrey, who lost part of a leg while serving in the Vietnam War, pitches in at a Handicap International center that provides prosthetics for those who lost limbs in the quake. The group also visits a Partners in Health clinic that’s working to give Haitians access to health care.
The goal of their trip was not just to parachute in and offer temporary assistance, but to help Haitians develop things like sustainable agriculture and nutritional education that can have lasting effects for months and years down the line.
- May 25
Sharing Some Strength At The Corner -
Diana Hovey, Senior Vice President of Marketing for Corner Bakery Cafe, participated as a panel member in an education session at the 2010 National Restaurant Association Show that discussed the benefits and strategies of Share Our Strength and its Great American Dine Out.
QSR Magazine
May 23, 2010Diana Hovey, Senior Vice President of Marketing for Corner Bakery Cafe, participated as a panel member in an education session at the 2010 National Restaurant Association Show that discussed the benefits and strategies of Share Our Strength and its Great American Dine Out.
Share Our Strength is a Washington, D.C.-based organization that works to end childhood hunger in America. The Great American Dine Out is its week of charitable events at restaurants that supports the cause.
Corner Bakery Cafe participated in the Great American Dine Out last year, raising $50,000 by selling bounce-back coupons to guests for the chain’s Whoopee Pies. The company will participate in the event again this year, which takes place September 19-25.
Hovey sat down with QSR’s Sam Oches after the education session to discuss Corner Bakery’s role with the Great American Dine Out and what it means for the quick-service industry.
- May 24
Bill Shore talks about fighting hunger in America on C-SPAN's "Washington Journal." -
An interview with Bill Shore, Founder and Executive Director, Share Our Strength, provides an overview of childhood hunger in America
C-SPAN’s “Washington Journal”
May 22, 2010An interview with Bill Shore, Founder and Executive Director, Share Our Strength, provides an overview of childhood hunger in America, in an extensive interview in which he hones in on the recession and its impact on children at risk of hunger. Bill Shore explains the breadth of the problem and the solutions we can implement to end hunger in rural, urban and suburban communities nationwide.
- May 20
Feeding the Recession's Youngest Victims -
A 2009 exhibit of raw, revealing photographs of hungry kids were supposed to shock and stir action.
CBS Evening News
May 19, 2010(CBS) Last year, Seth Doane reported on the youngest victims of the recession: hungry children. One year later, he has revisited a couple of the families. A 2009 exhibit of raw, revealing photographs of hungry kids were supposed to shock and stir action. The “Witnesses to Hunger” show was Mariana Chilton’s idea. She gave cameras to 40 lower-income Philadelphia women. The idea was to spark dialogue after seeing the pictures of hungry kids.
One year later, CBS News correspondent Seth Doane reports there’s been a change — for the worse. In 2007, 12.4 million children in the United States were hungry. Now, that number has grown to nearly 17 million kids. These new numbers reflect the recession’s impact on America’s children.
Video from the May 19, 2010 CBS Evening NewscastMarinette Roman had a photo in the exhibit. She also had five hungry kids in a shelter. Last year, her son Lewis often went to sleep with an empty stomach.
But after almost a year in the shelter, they moved into temporary, transitional housing last October with help from a local nonprofit.
Lewis was happy, and settled into his own room. Marinette’s “always in the kitchen.” She missed having one.
But she still doesn’t have a job, because she can’t afford childcare. Marinette scrapes by with government assistance. Still, life is better, says Lewis’ younger brother Eric.
“I could just lay down, go to sleep without being hungry,” Eric said.
There is still plenty to worry about. This October, their time in the transitional housing will run out.
Imani Sullivan also had a picture in the “Witness to Hunger” exhibit. Last year, her nine-year-old son DeMire described what it was like when he didn’t eat.
“I cry,” he said, “because I’m hungry.”
She searches for work everyday, cleaning houses when she can. But she fell behind on rent, and lost the home she was in last year.
“My whole life just turned around in one year’s time,” she said. “Much worse.”
Now, she makes her bed each night on the floor of her mother’s house. The kids sleep on the couch.
“Sometimes I can’t even look my kids in the face,” she said. “When I’m feeding ‘em and I know that they going to ask me for more - what am I supposed to tell them?
“My biggest, gravest concern is that after the recession the middle class will start to grow and the poor that’s always been there - will not be able to pull out of a recession with the rest of the crowd,” Chilton said.
For those already down, it’ll be a much more difficult climb.
- May 17
Wal-Mart Announces Plan to Donate $2-Billion, Mostly in Food, to the Nation's Food Banks -
Wal-Mart and its charitable foundation plan to give $250-million in cash and $1.75-billion worth of food
Chronicle of Philanthropy
May 12, 2010Wal-Mart and its charitable foundation plan to give $250-million in cash and $1.75-billion worth of food over the next five years to fight hunger in the United States, the company announced today. The commitment, called “Fighting Hunger Together,” is among the largest corporate commitments of food and other noncash gifts. It comes as food banks across the country are struggling to keep up with demand from people who have lost their jobs in the recession.
Pat Nicklin interviewed by The Chronicle of PhilantrhopyA report released last fall by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service found that an estimated 49 million Americans struggle to get enough healthy food to eat, a 36-percent jump over the previous year.
Food experts don’t believe the economic recovery will quickly improve that situation. “As a matter of fact, we see it going on through 2019,” said Bill McGowan, chief operating officer at Feeding America, the country’s largest network of food banks and a Wal-Mart beneficiary.
Wal-Mart’s commitment will provide 1.1 billion pounds of food, enough for more than a billion meals, according to USDA estimates. Mr. McGowan said that last year, food banks that are part of the Feeding America network delivered 2.6 billion pounds of food. Helping Schoolchildren
Even before today’s announcement, the retail company was a big donor to antihunger groups. Last year Wal-Mart became the first business to provide Feeding America with more than 100 million pounds of food in a single year.
The company’s initial cash donations through the effort announced today include $8-million to help food banks improve their ability to serve hungry people. Of that amount, $6-million will help Feeding America add 60 refrigerated trucks to its fleet of 2,000. The trucks enable the charity to get food quickly from grocery stores to food banks before products go bad.
Wal-Mart and the Wal-Mart Foundation will also give $10-million to provide schoolchildren with healthy meals. A grant of $2-million, for example, will help the National Recreation and Park Association feed children during summer months. Enlisting Customers
In addition to giving food and cash, Wal-Mart officials said they would enlist workers and customers in the fight against hunger. For example, workers would provide expertise to food charities about how to maximize their effectiveness.
The company also plans to work with governments, food manufacturers, and other corporations to reduce hunger nationwide.
“Increasingly, we see opportunities to use our scale and reach to solve challenges in our communities. This is one of those times,” Eduardo Castro-Wright, Wal-Mart’s vice chairman, said in a statement. “By working together, we believe that we can reach a day where no individual in this country has to go to bed hungry or worry there will be food to put on the table tomorrow.”
Last year, Wal-Mart and its foundation gave $512-million in cash and products, according to the company. In 2008 Wal-Mart gave $423-million, $320.5-million of which was cash. That amount was enough to make Wal-Mart the largest donor of cash on The Chronicle’s annual list of corporate donors.
- May 17
Jane Fonda On Her Favorite Atlanta Eats -
Sliders! That was the message I heard loud and clear from Jane Fonda when I sat down with her for a few minutes at Share our Strength’s Taste of the Nation
Access Atlanta
May 13, 2010Sliders! That was the message I heard loud and clear from Jane Fonda when I sat down with her for a few minutes at Share our Strength’s Taste of the Nation — the annual taste-around/auction at the Georgia Aquarium that raises money for hunger relief. Jane loves sliders! Particularly the ones at Ted’s Montana Grill.
Of course, the fact that Fonda — the event’s honorary chair — was sitting next to Ted’s owner George McKerrow, Jr., might have had something to do with her avowal of slider love.
Q: So what are you going to miss from Atlanta now that you’ve moved to Los Angeles? A: Food!
Q: Specifically? A: The fried chicken at Watershed on Tuesdays. That broth that’s made of cooked soul food at Mary Mac’s.
Q: The potlikker? A: Yes. The potlikker. And those sliders with the quail egg at Canoe. [Another restaurant owned by McKerrow.]
Q: How does diet fit into a good fitness regime? A: You can’t be fit if you’re hungry. You can’t be fit if you’re starving and poor. Knowing what good food is and where it comes from is so important. That’s what Vanessa Vadim, Fonda’s daughter, a well-known good food activist in Atlanta] is so good at.
Q: How do you keep so fit and eat well? All good things in moderation? A. I don’t do desserts. But I do sliders! I like stuff that tastes good, but I just don’t eat too much of it.
Q: Has being a Southerner changed the way you eat? A: No, but it’s changed the way I think. People on the coasts just don’t understand the realities of the people who live in the middle of the sandwich.
- May 17
Help Fight Childhood Hunger With 'Bake Sale' -
Food Network personality Sandra Lee talked about the problem of hungry children in America on FOX21 Morning News
Colorado Connection [Fox 21, CW 57]
May 13, 2010COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO. — Food Network personality Sandra Lee talked about the problem of hungry children in America on FOX21 Morning News — and offered up a way the public can help.
Lee is the campaign spokesperson for The Great American Bake Sale, which is put together each year by Share Our Strength.
In fact, Share Our Strength and the Colorado Coalition to End Hunger launched “The Campaign to End Childhood Hunger in Colorado” to increase the number of Colorado school children receiving breakfasts and summer lunches. According to Share Our Strength, 17.2 percent of the state’s children are considered “food insecure” — which means they lack access to adequate food supplies.
Events like The Great American Bake Sale allow communities to contribute to the cause on a grass-roots level, Lee said, because it allows people to organize a bake sale in neighborhood and then donate the proceeds directly to the Share Our Strength efforts.
- May 17
Share Our Strength Plots NYC Affair -
If you’re looking for a way to taste some of the best food New York City has to offer
Appetite For Good
May 13, 2010If you’re looking for a way to taste some of the best food New York City has to offer, look no further than Share Our Strength’s Taste of the Nation mega-event on Monday, May 17. The charity which raises funds to support No Kid Hungry, a national campaign to end childhood hunger in America by 2015, is about to kick off its New York leg of the foodie-friendly tour. Appetite for Good continues our nation-wide coverage of Taste of the Nation events following our Houston coverage (coming soon!).
The Grand Hyatt New York will be home to the event that will showcase an extremely impressive list of fine dining establishments including Aquavit, Blue Smoke, Eleven Madison Park, Felidia, Gramercy Tavern and Scarpetta, among others.
Jenny Dirksen, Director, NYC for Share Our Strength, spoke exclusively with Appetite for Good, about the importance of the event. “Share Our Strength ensures children in need are enrolled in federal nutrition programs, invests in community organizations fighting hunger, teaches families how to cook healthy meals on a budget, and builds public-private partnerships to end hunger both nationally and a state level,” said Dirksen. New York City has been hosting this event for the last 13 years through the help of local chefs, mixologists and top restaurateurs. “Through their devotion and the generosity of the local sponsors they recruit in each city, we’re able to put together unique events all across the county,” Dirksen explained.
Also, be sure to keep an eye out for the food world’s finest who are acting as honorary chairs for the event like Danny Meyer, Jeffrey Chodorow and Ben Leventhal. Local sponsors include Food & Wine, L’Ecole, the restaurant of the French Culinary Institute and the Union Square Hospitality Group. Just knowing that a 100% of the ticket proceeds go to Share Our Strength’s mission to end childhood hunger in America, will make all the food taste a little bit sweeter
