The statistics are alarming. One in four American children struggles with hunger. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 17.2 million children are at risk of hunger across the nation in communities that include rural towns; suburban neighborhoods and urban centers – making it clear that hunger is a harsh reality for many Americans A staggering 23.2% of US Children live in food insecure households with the gravest meal shortages occurring in Arizona, Arkansas and in our nation’s capital, Washington DC.
Food. It seems so very basic to most of us but here are the hards facts about food insecure households:
→ 46% of the client households served by Feeding America food banks report having to choose between paying for food and paying for utilities or heating fuel
→ 40% of client households had to choose between paying for food and paying rent/mortgage
→ 34% of client households had to choose between paying for food and paying for medicine/medical care
To combat this epidemic, ConAgra Foods®, in partnership with Feeding America®, is asking us, the consumers, to take part in a new initiative to fight child hunger with their “Child Hunger Ends Here” campaign. Child Hunger Ends Here brings together some of ConAgra Foods’ best known brands (Healthy Choice, Hebrew National, Marie Calendars) as part of the largest cause-marketing program in the company’s history including this weeks television special on NBC.
On March 19, 2011, “Child Hunger Ends Here: A Special Report,” a 30-minute special hosted by Al Roker with Natalie Morales, will highlight the personal stories of families struggling with hunger and showcasing how Americans can work together to tackle this issue. (Check local listings for viewing times.) During the special, viewers can also participate in an online event which will shed additional light on the child hunger issue. By following #ChildHungerEndsHere on Twitter during the broadcast, participants can ask questions from an expert panel, as well as learn about ways to get involved. In addition, a series of PSAs will run in select areas highlighting key child hunger issues and the text to donate program.
“ConAgra Foods® is a longtime, committed partner of Feeding America and we are incredibly grateful for the ongoing dedication to fighting domestic child hunger,” said Vicki Escarra, President and CEO of Feeding America. “With one in four children across the nation struggling with hunger, we are in crisis right now. No American should go hungry, and we thank ConAgra Foods® for joining us in that belief and for raising awareness and support for Feeding America.”
About ConAgra Foods: ConAgra Foods, Inc., (NYSE: CAG) is one of North America’s leading food companies, with brands in 97 percent of America’s households. Consumers find Banquet, Chef Boyardee, Egg Beaters, Healthy Choice, Hebrew National, Hunt’s, Marie Callender’s, Orville Redenbacher’s, PAM, Peter Pan, Reddi-wip and many ConAgra Foods brands in grocery, convenience, mass merchandise and club stores. ConAgra Foods also has a strong business-to-business presence, supplying frozen potato and sweet potato products as well as other vegetable, spice and grain products to a variety of well-known restaurants, foodservice operators and commercial customers. For more information, please visit us at www.conagrafoods.com.
* When consumers activate their purchase online at www.childhungerendshere.com and enter an eight digit code, a monetary donation will be made enabling one meal to be secured by Feeding America on behalf of local food banks, up to a maximum of 2.5 million meals for codes entered through 8/31/11. Valid in US only. $1 donated = 7 meals secured by Feeding America on behalf of local food banks.
**This post is part of a compensated campaign. Bloggers involved with this campaign include HollywoodMomBlog, ParentSphere, ScaryMommy, MileHighMamas, 80MPHMom, LoveToShopMom, and more! Check out my complete twitter list here.
Editor Tracy Bobbitt,
Thank you for sharing this information.
Sarah
Feeding America
http://feedingamerica.org/
My pleasure!
What is the name of the show because I don’t see a link on how to check local listings?
Hi Deborah – Thanks for asking. It it is expected to air in Chicago, Dallas, Hartford, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Omaha, Philadelphia, San Diego, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. so if you live in one of these areas, please check your local listings.
I just watched Child hunger Ends Here,An knbc special with Al Rocker and Natalis Morales. There are thousands of families suffering from hunger in America, I know because I have lived among them. This show was a joke! The families shown were not believable, as a matter of I really saw more of an advertizing campaign for ConAgra Foods.
Shame on Al Roker for not looking more into the contents of this so call special before reseaching and or if possible having a clause in his contract to view before release! Maybe it was all about money not hunger.
@ Ray Trotter – Funny how people can watch the same show and come away with completely different feelings. I thought the show was so touching and it opened my eyes to a severe, nation-wide problem I wasn’t previously familiar with. ConAgra Foods is clearly the sponsor of this television program but looking at the much bigger picture they are also the financial motivator of the charitable movement “Child Hunger Ends Here.” What you see as advertising, I see as common sense sponsorship – ConAgra Foods saw a need and stepped up to the plate to help solve the problem, in conjunction with FeedingAmerica.org Hopefully as we continue to post on this issue over the next few weeks you’ll come to see the greater good of the project as a whole, even if you are not able to relate to the television show.
[…] Hollywood Mom blog – Watch NBC Special “Child Hunger Ends Here” Saturday, March 19, 2011 […]
Though it’s great that NBC is bringing the issue of the childhood hunger epidemic to their viewers’ attention it brings up the question of why didn’t NBC ask what needed to be asked at the end of the program and instead pretend like people donating $10 or $15 to some food bank is going to accomplish much of anything? NBC carefully avoided the hard questions that the hunger epidemic in America raises.
For instance why is it that in the so-called richest country in the world this is even an issue? More to the point, why don’t we have a government that cares about people who AREN’T business owners, you know, the average working people in this country struggling to make ends meet and who couldn’t dream of having enough money to buy a brand new car let alone open their own business so they can exploit OTHERS? In other words, why don’t we have a government that mandates a federal minimum wage that (gasp!) a person can actually afford to LIVE on? Because $7.25/hour is so far out of touch with reality as to be comical if it weren’t causing so much starvation and misery. Nobody anywhere in this country, not even in dirt-poor Alabama, can afford to support himself let alone raise a family on $7.25/hour. Yet businesses don’t legally have to pay their workers a penny more than this rate (with the few exceptions being a handful of states where the minimum wage is actually slightly higher than this, for example a still-laughable $8/hour.) Google “living wage calculator” to see what the living wage is in your area. In no place in the U.S. is a living wage below $12-something/hour for a single man with no kids. How about a government that has enough guts to tell business owners large and small that they will now start paying their workers a living wage? That if they want to keep their business license they will have to pay their employees at least $12-something an hour with the new minimum wage pegged to inflation so that if the dollar loses for example 10% of its value next year then the workers’ wages go up by 10% to compensate?
That would be the beginning of making America into something worth actually being proud of instead of being a byword among nations and a glaring example of how NOT to run a country. Because as it stands now the U.S. is a sick joke played on every single one of us who wasn’t born into a billionaire family. It’s the land of opportunity, but only if you already HAVE opportunities, only if you already ARE wealthy whereas it’s nothing but the land of wage slavery for the rest of us not fortunate enough to be born with a silver spoon up our rear end.
Let’s dispense with the bandaids on arterial bleeding which is what do-nothing “solutions” like asking people for $10 or $15 donations for food banks amount to and start eliminating the REASON working people have to rely on food banks in the first place.
Thank you! I will now go on this blog every day!