Hungry to Help

Knowledge is Power in Fight Against Child Hunger

Stephanie Childs — Thu, 1 Jul 2010 13:22:06 -0500

Arkansas, Texas and Arizona have the highest rates of child hunger in the United States, according to a new report released by Feeding America. The report was sponsored by the ConAgra Foods Foundation and Kori Reed, our executive director, wrote a guest blog for Feeding America's website about why child hunger is important to her and why sponsoring the report helps in the fight against childhood hunger.

World Food Prize

Kori Reed — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 15:06:08 -0500

Knowledge, passion, determination and a belief that the world can be a better a place are key factors when you're fighting to end hunger.

David Beckmann, president of Bread for the World, embodies these traits. While I haven't personally met David, his reputation, background and actions are inspiring to me.

David has been advocating for solutions to end hunger since he became the president of Bread for the World in 1991, and even before then through his work with the World Bank. David's personal faith and his faith in the good of others have given him the strength to build a community of people passionate about ending hunger in America and around the world. In fact, David has built a community of more than 1 million people willing to speak out against hunger and in favor of sustainable solutions to help those in need.

David's amazing work was recently recognized when he was named a recipient of the 2010 World Food Prize, an award considered to be the Nobel Peace Prize of the food and agriculture community. In awarding David with this prize, the World Food Prize organization acknowledged David's extraordinary work to secure the "efforts and commitment of everyday citizens throughout the world in the fight to end poverty and hunger."

In part, David's passion is derived from his home state of Nebraska. In a recent interview, David said, "People in Nebraska understand that there is plenty of food. We do not have to let people go hungry."

Living in Nebraska now and having dedicated myself to helping end hunger, David's statement resonates with me. We live in a land of plenty. We should be able to help those in need overcome hunger.

Sharing David and Bread for the World's goal of ending hunger, I'd like to extend my warmest congratulations. Receiving the World Food Prize is an amazing honor, and one that we might all strive to achieve within this community of activists passionate about ending hunger.

Learn more about David's achievement and share your congratulations with David via Bread for the World's website.

Magic Summer Lunchbox Success

Stephanie Childs — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 10:22:56 -0500

Julia Morse of Feeding America joins us as a guest blogger and gives us an update on the success of the "Magic Summer Lunchbox" campaign in the below post.

Kori Reed said it best in her blog post a few weeks ago - "summer break isn't such a good time for all kids."

My name is Julia Morse and I work for Feeding America, the nation's largest hunger-relief organization. The ConAgra Foods Foundation is our exclusive Leadership Partner in the Fight to End Child Hunger and supports the fight against child hunger in extraordinary ways.

Last month, Feeding America launched a fundraising campaign called "Magic Summer Lunchbox," which aimed to raise visibility and support for the 19.5 million children who lose access to the free and reduced-price meals they receive during the school year. For these children, the summer months are a critical time of need.

We had a goal to raise $250,000 to help our network of food banks get food to children and families in need this summer. And thanks to the support of the ConAgra Food $250,000 matching grant, we not only met that goal but we surpassed it!

With nearly 1 in 4 children struggling with hunger in America each year, this support could not come at a more critical time.

No child should go hungry. Everyone at Feeding America extends their greatest gratitude and thanks to the ConAgra Foods Foundation for the ongoing support and dedication to fighting child hunger.

Healthy Meals on a Budget

Kori Reed — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 15:08:50 -0500

If you're a fan of Oprah, then you know she is auditioning candidates to host their own show on her new TV network.

One of the audition tapes really caught my eye.

Tiffany is from Bowie, Md., with a husband, three children, a full-time job and a passion for cooking. All-in-all, she's someone who's just like you and me. In her audition tape, she talks about the challenges we all face in providing our families with nutritious meals when we don't have a lot of time or energy. Not to mention how confusing it can be to determine what foods are the best ones for your family.

As a mother and wife with a full-time job too, I can absolutely relate to Tiffany's story. (Watch Tiffany's audition)

But, as the Executive Director of the ConAgra Foods Foundation, I also see another side to this story.

I have a full-time job that allows me to comfortably support my family, but not everyone is as lucky. In fact, according to U.S. government statistics, 15 million people in America are unemployed.

For mothers, fathers or other caregivers who are struggling to make sure they can pay all of the bills and feed their families, the challenge of providing nutritious meals every day is multiplied several times over.

That's why the ConAgra Foods Foundation is the national sponsor of Operation Frontline, a ground-breaking cooking and nutrition education program that teaches families how to prepare healthy, delicious meals on a limited budget.

In the first year of our partnership with Operation Frontline, we helped them increase participation in the program by 35 percent and the number of graduates by 40 percent. Even better, the overwhelming majority of adult graduates reported they had improved their families' food budgeting abilities and their cooking and eating habits.

This is just one way we're helping families in need across the nation. We hope you'll join us and that you'll support people like Tiffany who are also looking for unique ways to help improve the health of our country.

Summer Hunger

Kori Reed — Thu, 20 May 2010 14:59:32 -0500

Summer break isn't such a good time for all kids.

For me, summer break was a time for family vacations, playing at a nearby park and enjoying backyard barbecues with family and friends. In fact, I'm sure many of us happily remember digging into big slices of watermelon and savoring ice cream cones during hot summer days.

But for millions of children, summer break means an extended and sometimes even daily struggle with hunger.

During the school year, more than 19 million kids receive free and reduced-price lunches. These are children whose parents are struggling to make ends meet. For these families, knowing that their children can get a free or reduced-price meal at school means they have a little more money to put dinner on the table.

But during the summer, few of these children have access to programs that serve nutritious meals to those in need. We've partnered with Feeding America to close that gap.

Right now, if you donate to Feeding America's Magic Summer Lunchbox, we'll double your donation.

That's right. We'll double it.

We've provide a $250,000 matching grant to Feeding America. For every dollar donated, up to $250,000, we'll match it.

Your donation can go a long ways. For just $39, you'll help provide three meals a day to a child in need all summer long. Combined with our matching grant, that means we'll be providing two children with three meals a day all summer.

I hope you'll join us in the fight end child hunger this summer by making a donation today.

More is Better

Kori Reed — Wed, 12 May 2010 15:31:53 -0500

For nearly 20 years, ConAgra Foods and the ConAgra Foods Foundation have funded efforts to combat hunger in America, especially childhood hunger. Our philosophy is based on the belief each child has a right to the nourishment they need to live healthy, active lives and to thrive in school.

Solving an issue as complex as hunger requires building a community of people passionate about finding the necessary solutions.

Knowing that, we applaud Walmart's announcement today of a five-year commitment to help end hunger in the United States. I am certain that the company's commitment, along with the dedicated work of many others, will bring new ideas and renewed attention to the fact that one in six Americans and, even worse, one in four children will face hunger this year.

As a member of the Association of Corporate Charitable Professionals and the chair of one ACCP's committees, I've had the pleasure of working with staff from the Walmart Foundation. And, as the executive director of the ConAgra Foods Foundation, I look forward to working with them even more often and continuing to build the community of people who will, I am certain, eventually end hunger in the United States.

Investing In Our Future

Kori Reed — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 09:38:57 -0500

If you had $50,000, how would you invest it in your community?

That was the question I asked a couple dozen students and their parents when they came to ConAgra Foods for Take Our Kids to Work Day last week. I told them 10 non-profit organizations were requesting a total of $100,000 in grants and asked each parent-child pair to decide how they wanted to invest their $50,000, knowing they would have to tell some organizations yes and others no.

This situation is similar to what I encounter in my job; there are unlimited requests for very worthy causes, but not unlimited dollars to support them all. As a company and a foundation, we choose to give our limited resources to hunger and nutrition education related organizations, so that we can make the most impact with our budget.

These kids are smart! Even before I explained ConAgra Foods' charitable giving philosophy and how we make decisions about where to invest, they had figured it out. In almost every situation, the kids gave the bulk of their fictitious funding to a child hunger cause and then allocated the rest to others on the list.

While these kids have passion for other worthy causes, they said it was made the most sense to feed kids. We agree.

The Reality of Hunger

Kori Reed — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 08:30:00 -0500

When you think about hunger in the United States, what comes to mind?

Is it an image of homelessness? Drug use? Alcoholism?

What if you knew that hunger is a reality that affects millions of Americans and that most of them are people very similar to you and your neighbors?

Would you think differently about the challenges they and their families face?

The reality is that 49 million people face hunger each year in the United States. Of those millions, nearly 17 million are children. That's one in six of every American citizen and, worse yet, one in four children. They are children and families who can't reach their full potential because they don't have the nourishment they need.

Many American families are choosing between paying their rent or mortgage and buying groceries. In other cases, they have to choose between buying gas to get to work or putting a meal on the table for their family. For the elderly or those with chronic illnesses, it can mean choosing between buying much needed prescription medicine and going to the grocery store.

Whether you're young, old, married, single, have children or not, these are incredibly difficult choices to face.

To help those who are facing these choices, we partner with Feeding America. The services and assistance provided by Feeding America can make all the difference in the world. We're proud to partner with Feeding America. To learn more about their work, check out the video below and their website.

I'm proud to say that, over the next several years, our partnership with Feeding America will help create even more new programs and services for those in need, and will help build a stronger community of people passionate about fighting child hunger.

Saying thanks...

Kori Reed — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 08:30:13 -0500

It's always humbling for me to be amongst those who are on the frontline of hunger solutions every day. Late last week I got to do that as a panelist at a Feeding America Food Bank Summit, speaking about donor partnerships with food bank staffs from across the country.

Food banks are incredibly efficient warehouse systems that are designed to take in food donations from individuals, government assistance programs, grocery stores and food companies and more. They then provide those donations to the people who need it most.

This is the most basic description of food bank services, but my praise for food bank and the staffs that operate them is anything but basic. When I get to interact with this group of passionate people, I am humbled because they are right there, every day, facing the reality of hunger and finding solutions that work.

I am passionate about the cause, but a step removed from it.

In my job, I invest grant dollars to help food banks increase capacity to serve more people. I reap the benefits of praise, on behalf of ConAgra Foods, when we help a location purchase a new truck or open another after school meal location.

But my inspiration comes from those who go to work each day with the direct mission of helping ensure that people get the most basic of all elements �� food.

To our food bank friends and partners, thank you for being great partners in the fight against hunger! You inspire me, and I believe you should be an inspiration to many others.

Building a Community

Kori Reed — Thu, 8 Apr 2010 12:14:51 -0500

Nearly one in four children in America will struggle with hunger this year.

That's 16.7 million children who aren't always sure if they're going to have dinner; who are going to school with empty stomachs and distracted minds; and who aren't getting the basic nutrition they need to live healthful, active lives.

Our children deserve better.

As the executive director of the ConAgra Foods Foundation, I'm in the fortunate position of being able to do something to help those children in need. But finding the solutions to end child hunger is not something that any one person or organization can do alone.

I believe the best solution is to build a community of people who are passionate about ending child hunger. Working together, we will be able to develop and put in place the solutions that will ensure that no child goes hungry.

In the coming weeks, you can expect to hear from me and others who are developing and implementing solutions that will help our children today so that they can have better tomorrows.

If you're interested in joining this community, take a look at our Get Involved section for some great ideas.