Building a Stable Future For Our Country’s 48 Million Food-Insecure People

48 million people in the U.S. struggle with hunger – meaning they do not always have access to the food they need to live an active, healthy life. Feeding America aims to get more nutritious food to more people. In this post from our Shape the Future Blog Series, Feeding America shares how they are working to solve hunger in our nation.

1 in 7 Americans face hunger. This means that likely, someone you know may not be getting enough to eat. Your neighbors, children’s classmates or even your friends could be food insecure. 

While hunger hurts everyone, its effects can be particularly harmful to children. More than 15 million children struggle with hunger. Good nutrition, particularly in the first three years of life, is important for establishing a good foundation that has implications for a child’s future physical and mental health, academic achievement, and economic productivity. As members of society, we all pay a price for child hunger, as the health of our nation’s children and productivity impacts our entire economy.

Using Multisector Resources to Meet Basic Needs and Achieve Long-Term Food Security For More People          

While it is Feeding America’s mission to solve hunger and feed more people, they also know that to truly solve hunger, we must address its root causes and help people achieve long-term food security. When families struggle with hunger, they often struggle to meet other basic needs as well – such as healthcare, housing and employment. Feeding America aims to leverage their network of 200 food banks across the nation and their provision of food to provide for people holistically, by connecting them with multisector resources to help them meet their other basic needs as well. In this way, Feeding America hopes to help people facing hunger build a pathway out of food insecurity and into a bright and stable future. 

How Can Businesses and Individuals Help?

The rates of hunger in our nation are holding steady at all-time highs. If we don’t address the issue, those numbers could rise – even if they continue to hold steady, this has detrimental implications for the future health and prosperity of our entire nation.

While there are many ways to help Feeding America, financial support – particularly donations made through workplace giving – is one of the most efficient ways you can support Feeding America’s work to solve our nation’s hunger problem.  Here are a few examples of what your donation can help Feeding America accomplish:

• $1 helps provide 11 meals to people in need
• 1 meal is equivalent to $0.09
• $1 helps provide 10 pounds of produce
• $1 helps provide 14 pounds of food
• $1 helps provide $23 worth of groceries (wholesale value)

Your donation will help families all across America – like Daniel and Maricruz, whose story you can watch below or read about here:

Our thanks to Feeding America for sharing their mission and impact with us.  You can learn more about their work, and more ways to help them, by visiting their website at www.feedingamerica.org.