Spotlight on Hunger: WYCD Interviews FeedMore in Central Virginia.

This holiday season, What You Can Do is teaming up with Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen to help raise awareness and fight hunger in New York City. As 1 in every 5 New Yorkers face hunger, Holy Apostles plays a crucial role in providing food, support and hope to people in need.  

The What You Can Do team is based in New York, so we have the opportunity to collaborate with many organizations inspiring change throughout our city. Since fans watch What You Can Do from around the world, we thought this holiday season would be a good time to highlight different perspectives on hunger. More than 49 million Americans face hunger today, with over 15 million of that number being children. 

We interviewed representatives from food banks and hunger organizations across the country and in Canada, asking about involvement in their communities, services they offer, trends they are seeing in their communities etc. 

Our sixth spotlight is on FeedMore, a hunger relief organization servicing the Central Virginia region. 

An interview with Jeff Baldwin, Media and Public Relations Manager for FeedMore, in Richmond Virginia.

WYCD:  Please tell us a little about your organization and the community that you serve.

FeedMore is Central Virginia’s core hunger-relief organization made up of the Central Virginia Food Bank, Meals on Wheels, and the Community Kitchen. The FeedMore programs provide hunger relief to our region’s most vulnerable populations, particularly children, families and seniors. FeedMore serves 31 counties and 5 cities in Virginia.

WYCD:  How long have you been in operation?

FeedMore was created on July 1, 2008 with the merger of the Central Virginia Food Bank and Meals on Wheels Serving Central Virginia. As the new organization was born, an unprecedented economic downturn brought a challenging combination of limited financial resources for nonprofits across the country, as well as historic increases in demand for services. The FeedMore merger was timely, for by working together, the Food Bank and Meals on Wheels maximized efficiencies and available resources to better serve those in need.


WYCD:  What types of services do you provide to your community?

FeedMore offers hunger-relief programs such as our Central Virginia Food Bank, which partners with a network of 360 agencies (food pantries, soup kitchens, homeless shelters, etc.); our Meals on Wheels program, which delivers freshly prepared, nutritious meals to 1,000 of our region's homebound and elderly population, our Children’s Programs; such as Kids Cafe, which is a network of over 60 after-school meal and snack sites, and the BackPack Program, which provides weekend meals to 2,000 chronically hungry children each week.

WYCD: Which services are the most popular and why do you think that is? 

All of our programs at FeedMore are very active. In Central Virginia, 206,770 individuals are food-insecure, meaning they do not know where their next meal is coming from. This number includes nearly 51,000 children and represents nearly 14% of the entire population.

WYCD:  Have the overall numbers of visitors changed in the last few years?

We don’t really have visitors per say. We serve our partners through our Central Virginia Food Bank, who in turn serve clients. We also serve clients directly through our Meals on Wheels and Children’s Programs.

WYCD:  Has the demographic of your visitors changed over the last several years?

No. Hunger does not discriminate. 

WYCD:  What are the most prevalent issues in your community, and do you feel that this reflects the current trends around the region?

Hunger is a real issue facing most communities throughout the country and Central Virginia is not immune.

WYCD:  If you have volunteers, are you finding more people involved in helping out, and does it fluctuate throughout the year?

FeedMore relies on a team of 250 volunteers to operate each and every day, so while we always have a wonderful team, we are in constant need for new faces and talents.

WYCD:  Do you have special requests for the types of food/meals that you provide?

We are always in need of donated non-perishable foods high in protein, such as peanut butter, canned meats and fish, cereals, pastas, canned vegetables and canned fruits.

WYCD:  What are easy ways that your community can help out your organization even if they only have one minute of time to give? What if they have one hour to give?

The easiest way to help FeedMore if you only have one minute is to make a secure online donation at www.feedmore.org. At FeedMore, a $5 donation equates to 25 meals, and 98 cents of every dollar supports FeedMore’s programs and services. If someone has an hour to give, we encourage them to become a FeedMore Meals on Wheels volunteer delivery driver. These volunteers are the individuals that deliver the freshly prepared meals to our clients.

We want to send many thanks to Jeff and his team at FeedMore for sharing their insight on hunger in the Central Virginia region with us. As we strive to end hunger across the country, they show us how we can take positive action as individuals and members of our communities. By finding ways to make a difference, one minute at a time, we can help erase hunger in our neighborhoods and around the world.

If you want to learn more about FeedMore and the work that they do, you can visit their website at:  https://feedmore.org
@FeeMoreInc



If you want to learn more about Holy Apostles in New York City, you can visit their website at:
http://www.holyapostlesnyc.org
@holyapostlesNYC

To join What You Can Do in the mission to help change the world, one minute at a time,
please visit us at:

www.facebook.com/whatyoucando
www.whatyoucando.com
https://www.youtube.com/user/WhatYouCanDo365/videos

@whatyoucando

Spotlight on Hunger: WYCD Interviews the Trenton Area Soup Kitchen, in Trenton New Jersey.

This holiday season, What You Can Do is teaming up with Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen to help raise awareness and fight hunger in New York City. As 1 in every 5 New Yorkers face hunger, Holy Apostles plays a crucial role in providing food, support and hope to people in need.  

The What You Can Do team is based in New York, so we have the opportunity to collaborate with many organizations inspiring change throughout our city. Since fans watch What You Can Do from around the world, we thought this holiday season would be a good time to highlight different perspectives on hunger. More than 49 million Americans face hunger today, with over 15 million of that number being children. 

We interviewed representatives from food banks and hunger organizations across the country and in Canada, asking about involvement in their communities, services they offer, trends they are seeing in their communities etc. 

Our fifth spotlight is on the Trenton Area Soup Kitchen, a hunger relief organization based out of Trenton, New Jersey.

An interview with Dennis Micai, Executive Director for the Trenton Area Soup Kitchen.

WYCD:  Please tell us a little about your organization and the community that you serve.

TASK has been meeting the needs of the hungry in the Greater Trenton, NJ area for more than 30 years. We provided 210,000 meals over the past year. In addition to our main site at 72 1/2 Escher Street, we have six satellite sites - 3 in Trenton, 2 in Hightstown and 1 in Princeton. In addition to our meal programs, we have an Adult Education Program, two arts programs (A-Team with traditional artists and SHARE with performing artists, writers, and musicians), a fully equipped computer lab, an on site social worker and various programs throughout the year for children. More details may be found on our website: www.trentonsoupkitchen.org.

WYCD:  How long have you been in operation?

TASK has been in operation since 1981.

WYCD:  If you offer a variety of services, which ones are the most popular and why do you think that is?

Obviously, our most popular program is our feeding program. However, the AEP and Arts Programs are also hugely popular.

WYCD:  Have the overall numbers of visitors changed in the last few years?

Our meal counts have consistently risen over the past several years to an all-time record of 210,000 (8% increase over prior year) in the FY year ended June 30.

WYCD:  Has the demographic of your visitors changed over the last several years?

(Are you seeing an increase in certain age groups, races, economic status, genders or the marital status of people needing your services?)

Our demographic has changed. We see more seniors, more young families, less homeless people (as there has been a concerted effort in Mercer County to house the homeless). In addition, we have seen more young males from outside the Trenton area coming to the city for services.

WYCD:  What are the most prevalent issues in your community, and do you feel that this reflects the current trends around the region?

The most significant issue in Trenton is safety. Crime has increased since the layoff of more than 100 police officers due to budget cuts. In addition, a poor school system, lack of jobs, and unaffordable housing continue to be major issues.

WYCD:  If you have volunteers, are you finding more people involved in helping out, and does it fluctuate throughout the year?

Our volunteer base remains stable at approximately 3,500 per year.

WYCD:  Do you have special requests for the types of food/meals that you provide?

We encourage people to donate money instead of food. Since we are members of the local food bank, we can purchase food at 15% of retail, therefore we can access 7 times the amount of food that someone purchasing at retail could. We are also always in need of personal hygiene products that we distribute to our patrons.

WYCD:  What are easy ways that your community can help out your organization even if they only have one minute of time to give? What if they have one hour to give?

If time is limited to 1 hour or less, the best way to help is to make a financial donation. We also always appreciate those that join us in advocating for the needs of the hungry.

We want to send many thanks to Dennis and his team at the Trenton Area Soup Kitchen for sharing their insight on hunger in the Greater Trenton area with us.  As we strive to end hunger as a nation, they help show us how cities across the U.S. are making a difference in their communities. By finding ways to take action, one minute at a time, we can help erase hunger in our neighborhoods and even around the world.

If you want to learn more about their work, you can visit the Trenton Area Soup Kitchen website at:
http://www.trentonsoupkitchen.org
@TASKsoupkitchen


If you want to learn more about Holy Apostles in New York City, you can visit their website at:
http://www.holyapostlesnyc.org
@holyapostlesNYC

To join What You Can Do in the mission to help change the world, one minute at a time,
please visit us at:

www.facebook.com/whatyoucando
www.whatyoucando.com
https://www.youtube.com/user/WhatYouCanDo365/videos

@whatyoucando

Spotlight on Hunger: WYCD Interviews the Utah Food Bank in Salt Lake City

This holiday season, What You Can Do is teaming up with Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen to help raise awareness and fight hunger in New York City. As 1 in every 5 New Yorkers face hunger, Holy Apostles plays a crucial role in providing food, support and hope to people in need.  

The What You Can Do team is based in New York, so we have the opportunity to collaborate with many organizations inspiring change throughout our city. Since fans watch What You Can Do from around the world, we thought this holiday season would be a good time to highlight different perspectives on hunger. Over 49 million Americans are facing hunger today, with more than 15 million of that number being children. 

We interviewed representatives from food banks and hunger organizations across the country and in Canada, asking about involvement in their communities, services they offer, trends they are seeing in their communities etc. 

Our second spotlight this season is the Utah Food Bank, a hunger relief organization based out of Salt Lake City, Utah.

An interview with Heidi Cannella, Communications Specialist for the Utah Food Bank, in Salt Lake City.  

WYCD:  Please tell us a little about your organization and the community that you serve.

1 in 6 Utahns are at risk of missing at least one meal per day. This equates to 472,000 Utahns, or 17% of our population. Even more alarming is that 1 in 5 kids are unsure where their next meal is coming from. With the help of our generous supporters last year, we were able to distribute 36.3 million pounds of food, or the equivalent of over 28 million meals. We are not a direct distribution center, but instead distribute food to a statewide network of 130 partner agencies, who then distribute it to our clients.

WYCD:  How long have you been in operation?

Utah Food Bank was founded in 1904 as the Salt Lake Charity Association. Over its 100 years of operation under various names and in various forms, Utah Food Bank has remained committed to serving Utah's citizens in need.

WYCD:  What types of services do you provide to your community?

Utah Food Bank’s primary service is our emergency food assistance program, through which we distribute food to a statewide network of 130 partner agencies such as emergency food pantries, congregate feeding sites (i.e. soup kitchens), and partner agencies. Last year we distributed over 36.3 million pounds of food statewide - the equivalent of over 28.4 million meals. We have several direct service programs that we offer as well:

• Kids Cafe: Utah Food Bank's Kids Cafe provides up to 1,730 hot, nutritious meals daily to children in low-income after-school programs at schools, community centers and after-school programs around Salt Lake County. We utilize 30 after-school sites to offer this service to kids who may go home and not be fed any dinner and were able to distribute over 200,000 meals in this manner.

• BackPack Program: Through this program, Utah Food Bank provides packages of nutritious, nonperishable foods to many Utah schools. A designated school employee will load packs of food into children’s backpacks at the end of every week. The packs are filled with food items that are non-perishable, kid-friendly, and require little-to-no preparation and contain items such as milk, tuna, instant macaroni and cheese, canned pasta meals such as Spaghetti-Os, vegetables and fruit cups. When the child returns on Monday, they give the pack to the school who fill it again and send it home the following Friday. Last year we distributed over 69,000 backpacks to kids in Utah.

•  UFB Food Box Program: Seniors, children and persons with disabilities are among the most vulnerable people UFB serves. Too often, daily expenses cut into limited retirement budgets, and seniors go hungry rather than neglect a utility bill or their medication. More than 3,600 low-income seniors and persons with disabilities receive a box of non-perishable food (and some perishables as they are available) each month from Utah Food Bank through the UFB Food Box Program. These boxes are hand-delivered by volunteers, and we distributed 41,195 food boxes statewide last year.

• Mobile Pantry: We have a refrigerated vehicle that allows us to serve food items to populations who are underserved by brick and mortar pantries alone. This could be to a lack of available transportation. We pull up to a designated site (typically monthly), set out tables and food, then the line moves through as we distribute the food. Last year, we visited approximately 650 mobile pantry sites, which served an estimated 13,000 people.

WYCD:  Have the overall numbers of visitors changed in the last few years?

Unfortunately, we have no reliable source of data regarding the number of people we serve as our partner agencies are the ones who see our clients. There is a lot of duplication and cross-over (i.e. clients utilizing more than one service or pantry), so we actually don’t know how many people we serve. We do know that despite our efforts to fight hunger, we are continually expanding our distribution, so this tells us that the need is nowhere near solved. The way that we track the number of people we serve is through how many meals we serve, which has remained around an average of 28.3 million meals for the past two years.

WYCD:  Has the demographic of your visitors changed over the last several years?

(Are you seeing an increase in certain age groups, races, economic status, genders or the marital status of people needing your services?)

We do not track demographics for similar reasons as [the question before], but we are hearing that the people using our services are using them longer than in the past (it is taking longer for people to get back on their feet), and that a larger number of those we serve are working poor – they have so far to go to get caught up that they need more assistance than in the past. Another trend we are seeing is that people are underemployed – they may have gone back to work but with lower pay, so are unable to cover all their bills – sadly, food is typically the last expense that gets covered.

WYCD:  What are the most prevalent issues in your community, and do you feel that this reflects the current trends around the region?

Utah Food Bank strongly believes that our biggest issue is childhood hunger in our state, where 1 in 5 kids are unsure where their next meal will come from. With 1 in 6 Utahns living below the poverty level (roughly 472,000 people), we have a long way to go to help these kids, and their parents, to become food secure.

WYCD:  If you have volunteers, are you finding more people involved in helping out, and does it fluctuate throughout the year?

We see a continually increasing rise, year-over-year, in the number of volunteer hours that we use. Last year, we utilized over 103,000 volunteer hours, or the equivalent of 49 full-time employees. We could not distribute 36.3 million pounds of food if we had to pay 49 additional employees, so rely heavily on our volunteers. Our holiday time frame is our busiest time of year for volunteers, and spots can book up to a year in advance during the holidays. Summer is probably our slowest time for volunteers – people are busy with summer activities and also there are fewer school groups who come to volunteer.

WYCD:  Do you have special requests for the types of food/meals that you provide?

We almost always ask for food that is highly nutritious, low in sodium and sugar, and high in protein. Peanut butter, tuna, boxed meals, pasta, etc. Macaroni & cheese is always in high demand from the kids we serve. 

WYCD:  What are easy ways that your community can help out your organization even if they only have one minute of time to give? What if they have one hour to give?

We always ask for 3 things – food, time, or money. If someone has 1 minute to give, they can like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter – this will help them to become more aware of the issue of hunger. If they have 2 minutes, they could share one of our posts with their friends, thereby advocating for all those in need for our state, and spreading the word about our mission. People can text UTAH to 50555 to donate $10. Donating online only takes a few minutes, and the fact that we turn $1 into $8 worth of goods and services means that their financial donations go even further than donations of food. We even have a way to “shop” for specific food items online through our “Virtual Food Drive.” Another quick and easy way to help is by dropping off food donations at one of the many drop-off locations statewide. With more time, they could organize neighborhood or community group food drives, or even volunteer here at our warehouse or at one of our partner agencies.

We want to send many thanks to the Utah Food Bank team for sharing their insight on hunger in Utah with us. With hunger on the rise across the country in recent years, their team inspired us with ideas to spread awareness and help hungry people in our communities.

If you want to learn more about their work, you can visit the Utah Food Bank website at: www.utahfoodbank.org
@utahfoodbank

If you want to learn more about Holy Apostles in New York City, you can visit their website at:
http://www.holyapostlesnyc.org
@holyapostlesNYC

To join What You Can Do in the mission to help change the world, one minute at a time,
please visit us at:

www.facebook.com/whatyoucando
www.whatyoucando.com
https://www.youtube.com/user/WhatYouCanDo365/videos

@whatyoucando