How You Can Take Action
Hinges of Hope works to create understanding and action, educates participants about solutions, and deepens participants' engagement with Share Our Strength and the communities we visit.
- Donate to support Share Our Strength's efforts to end childhood hunger in America
- Learn more about the Hurricane Katrina Relief and Recovery Efforts
- Get involved by holding a Bake Sale or support Taste of the Nation
- Learn more about Operation Frontline
- Sign up today to receive the latest updates on Hinges of Hope.
Learn More
Read about the experiences from earlier trips:
- Letter From the Border – Rio Grande Valley, TX and Mississippi Delta, MS
- Letter for the New Year – Washington, DC
- Letter of Invitation to Bear Witness – Boston, MA
- Letter from New Orleans
About Hinges of Hope
Hinges of Hope is a series of experiential learning tours that introduce leaders from the public and private sectors to local community leaders working to solve challenges in their traditionally impoverished neighborhoods.
This was a terrific experience. I came away with a greater understanding that you can't just write checks to solve problems [and it] helped me better understand what goes on and what is working and not working. The Hinges of Hope trips can help us to broaden our reach
—Joni Doolin, Founder and CEO of People Report
These trips take their name from regions of America seen as hinges of hope, because they simultaneously encompass both despair and promise, places where challenging conditions attracted amazing people who committed their lives to improving them. Such places can swing in a direction that allows hope to flow freely, or in a way that locks it out. These communities exist in every corner of the country —New Orleans, Roxbury, Anacostia, and the Rio Grande Valley.
The hardest challenges produce the most amazing people to meet them. We believe there’s real value in trying to break out of our comfort zones, get out of our own backyard, and find ways to see, learn and feel. Nothing is more important to our ability to fight hunger and poverty with the passion the task requires than the ongoing ability to connect with and learn from those who are dedicated to keeping the door open for hope.
The work of Share Our Strength has always been predicated on the notion that our social problems cannot be solved merely by redistributing resources, whether financial or human capital, but rather by identifying and/or creating new resources. Accordingly, our efforts have always been aimed at attracting new people to the cause. Instead of preaching to the choir, we've tried to recruit for it. The most effective wake up call we know is creating experiences for people through which they see and learn things they would not see in any other way.
Hinges of Hope inspires a response that becomes part of an ongoing conversation. It is only in such a dialogue that solutions are found and progress is made. We hope that this dialogue will begin to help us realize the promise of the opportunity we have to end childhood hunger.
About Share Our Strength
Share Our Strength leads the national fight to end childhood hunger by inspiring and engaging individuals and businesses to share their own strengths in innovative ways. In the next 20 years, our comprehensive plan will ensure the nearly 14 million American children facing the reality of hunger have access to the food they need to learn, grow and thrive.