WeCanEndThis!
February 22, 2010
Feeding America has been chosen as a charity partner to WeCanEndThis.com, a yearlong initiative to spark innovation and broader engagement in ending hunger in America. The initiative launches on March 4 in conjunction with the South By Southwest Festival.
On the WeCanEndThis website, visitors can donate a virtual can of food to the state of their choice.
At 5 p.m. ET on March 18, the 10 states with the most virtual cans will be awarded their own semi-truckload of real food, thanks to Tyson Foods. That’s 1.5 million meals!
Thanks to Scott Henderson of PledgeToEndHunger for spearheading the efforts with Share Our Strength and Capital Area Food Bank of Texas. Also, thanks to corporate partners including Mashable, Tyson Foods, ConAgra Foods Foundation and PepsiCo for joining the initiative.
Learn more on the WeCanEndThis Facebook fan page. Also, follow WeCanEndThis on Twitter and be sure to check out the website on March 4.
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Comments
I think these are all really good initiatives and helpful in feeding hungry people. I think some of the focus needs to be toward why people are hungry. Yes, the immediacy of feeding hungry people is important, but the roots of these issues go deeper. I do not believe hunger will end without some deeper rooted problem solving. The people who are being fed still end up in the same situations over and over.
Posted by Kristin | February 26, 2010 at 3:48 PM
I’d like to hear more about that as well. Sometimes I think we need to start a mandatory case-management process for everyone that visits our food pantry – just to make sure that everyone understands that we are meant to be a temporary solution and that they need to be actively trying to help themselves get out of their situation. Do yall know of any food pantries in your network that do case-management in the food giving process?
Posted by Billy | March 1, 2010 at 9:56 AM
Billy – I absolutely agree with you that we need to change course. Your phrase, “actively trying to help themselves get out of their situation,” is perfect. I haven’t heard of case management within a food bank. The first phrase that comes to mind with that is “mission drift.” Working with other non-profits to provide case-management to those who have concomitant needs is certainly something that should be part of what we do, though. I think there are things outside of a formal case-management process that we, as food banks, should do to actually help people stop being hungry, rather than just alleviating hunger at the moment (meaning by the day, week, month). Education should be a key part of every distribution and I think we really need to rethink a lot of what we do in order to actually end hunger and help people up instead of only being a constant source of a handout.
Posted by Donny | March 3, 2010 at 11:06 AM
The Hand Up Youth Food Pantry at Jewish Family Service of San Diego’s (www.jfssd.org/handup) goal is to provide a “hand up, not a hand out”. We operate 12 distribution sites across San Diego County and have a case manager present at 3 of the major distribution sites. The additional 9 distribution sites operate on a much smaller level and have services such as counseling or case management as the main focus and food distribution as an auxiliary service available.
The Hand Up program is a pantry, not a food bank. In San Diego the two county food banks supply more than 170 food pantries with food to be distributed directly to people. It is the local pantry’s responsibility to provide the case management services. I’m not sure how the food bank/pantry process operates in the rest of the U.S., but I’m very curious. Please inform me.
Posted by Shelly Hahne | March 11, 2010 at 12:19 AM
Wonderful Web site! I wondered if I could quote a portion of your pages and use a few items for a school assignment. Please let me know through email whether its ok or not. Thanks
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