The reasons that some people abstain from social media? It’s a time suck; it jeopardizes your privacy; it’s filled with superficial flotsam (such as people posting pictures of what they’re eating for dinner).
But the new mobile app Feedie, which was developed by the nonprofit The Lunchbox Fund, is turning an activity that might be considered frivolous into a new way to spread generosity. How so?
Every time a user takes a photo of a meal at a participating restaurant and shares it with his or her social network through the app, Feedie donates 25 cents to The Lunchbox Fund, which provides a daily meal for orphaned and disadvantaged school children in South Africa.
The Lunchbox Fund founder Topaz Page-Green explained the level of poverty in South Africa to Patrica Dao of Take Part: “There were children sitting away from the other kids at break under some trees,” she said, “and when I asked why children sat separately from the others during break, the teacher mentioned they had nothing to eat and didn’t want to see the kids who had food eating.”
Restaurants across the United States have signed on to participate — from Los Angeles to San Antonio and Miami Beach to Atlantic City. The app lets users know how many meals have been shared at each location; so far more than 12 million meals have been shared using it.
With the market for food-sharing being as huge as it is — Dao notes that “on Instagram alone, more than 20 million photos are hashtagged #foodporn” — converting virtual sharing into giving is bound to make a huge difference in the lives of those with empty stomachs.
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Tag: hunger
Ask the Experts: How to Bring Fresh, Healthy Food to the Neediest Families
We are a nation where rolling plains are covered in fields of wheat and corn, where rivers are filled with tumbling salmon, where orchards abound and valleys are filled with row upon row of vegetables. And yet millions of families live within our borders with empty cupboards and hungry children. In 2011, about 18 million households in the United States were described as “food insecure” — having limited or uncertain access to safe, nutritious foods — according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. “More importantly, households with children are nearly twice as likely to be food insecure,” according to a recent analysis by the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit Share Our Strength, which noted that about 4 million American families have children who lack access to adequate nutritious food. For children, food insecurity heralds a lifetime of future problems, including deficits in health and academic achievement.
Simply providing government assistance isn’t enough. A 2012 study at the Harvard School of Public Health found that people participating in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), often referred to as food stamps, eat less healthy diets — with fewer whole-grain products and more potatoes, red meat and sugary soft drinks — than people who didn’t receive SNAP benefits. The study didn’t make clear exactly why this is so, but part of the problem has to do with access. Many residents of low-income neighborhoods, urban or rural, don’t have easy access to grocery stores or other fresh-food options — the so-called food desert problem.
It’s an issue that’s received a lot of attention, but so far, few scalable solutions. So NationSwell asked the experts to weigh in on this question: How can we bring healthy food to our neediest neighborhoods? Read below for their hopeful responses, and then leave your thoughts in the comments box below.
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Thousands More Angelenos Can Now Enjoy Farmer’s Market Produce
While this sounds downright strange, the sale of cigarettes is giving some California residents access to healthy fruits and vegetables.
Thanks to a new $2.5 million grant from First 5 L.A. (a nonprofit funded through California taxes on tobacco products), thousands of low-income families in Los Angeles are going to be crunching into healthy farmer’s market goods.
The sizable grant was given to Market Match, a program that provides a dollar-for-dollar match at farmer’s markets to shoppers receiving economic assistance through EBT (Electronics Benefits Transfer, which is more widely know as food stamps) or WIC (the supplemental nutrition program for women, infants, and children).
According to the Los Angeles Times, the new funds could triple the impact of Market Match over the next several years. James Haydu, the executive director of Sustainable Economic Enterprises-Los Angeles, told David Karp of the Times, “It will not only expand the countywide program, but through the next five years it will make it far easier to be able to quickly explain how the system works to ensure that as many people as possible can take advantage of it.”
In 2010, Market Match started with only $3,000 of funding, serving just two farmer’s markets. With such a tiny amount of money available, the dollar-for-dollar matches quickly ran out. But with a projected $80,000 available to fund next year’s program, many more families will be able to enjoy the benefits of fresh fruits and vegetables. Market Match is now available at 14 L.A. farmer’s markets, and organizers hope to expand it to 37 markets during the grant-funded period.
Martin Bourque, the director of the Ecology Center in Berkeley, California, that manages the Market Match program, said that the funds will not only benefit low-income people in Los Angeles, but also enhance the health of California’s rural lands and its economy. Their survey of farmers at the markets indicated that 80 percent of them sold more produce as a result of the program.
“It’s important to remember that in addition to serving low-income shoppers, every dollar they spend is going to one of California’s small family farmers,” Bourque said. “So every dollar is doing double-duty — not only helping poor people in Los Angeles, but reaching out and helping some of California’s most economically devastated rural communities as well.”
Who knew the simple purchase of some locally-grown strawberries had the power to accomplish all that?
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Watch The Magic Trick That’s Both Heartwarming and Baffling at the Same Time
Using magic to solve hunger sounds completely ridiculous, but a YouTube star is certainly making it look like it’s possible.
In the video below, Magician Rob Anderson walks around the streets of Las Vegas and asks homeless people to indulge in his magic trick involving an empty paper bag. At first, they look skeptical but after they agree to place an item of food into the bag, Anderson does whatever magic voodoo he does and — presto, chango! — several more packages of the same food appear. In fact, there’s so much food coming from the bag that they can’t even catch it all.
Anderson calls himself a professional magician who also makes light-hearted pranking videos, but as he says about his aim: “I make videos that make you feel good.”
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While solving hunger takes much more effort than a few shakes of a paper bag, it’s certainly joyous to see the faces of these people light up after seeing their stash of food multiply as if out of thin air.
Across this country, millions of people do not have money for food or a home. Solving this problem is a serious undertaking, and that’s why there’s also a need to bring joy — and yes, a little magic — to the world.
Could You Survive on Less Than $1.50 Worth of Food Today?
When you have plenty of food to fill your belly, it’s easy to forget about those whose stomachs are empty.
And that’s just what New York City’s Hugh Evans wants to change.
To engage people in the fight against hunger, Evans, co-founder of The Global Poverty Project, is inviting people to join the Live Below the Line campaign, which runs from April 28 to May 2. Participants will live for five days on only the food and drink they can purchase for $1.50 or less a day — which is the amount of money some 1.2 million people have to feed themselves daily — and donate their savings to charities working to solve hunger, including Heifer International, The Hunger Project, and World Food Program USA.
Started in 2010, Live Below the Line has had 50,000 participants, raising $10 million for charity. Evans told Charles Lamb of the Christian Science Monitor that people get creative with their limited funds: “You’re allowed to buy your own seeds and plant your own food,” he said, so some plan ahead and plant crops they can eat for the week, while others pool their funds together to make it stretch farther.
The 31-year-old Evans is especially interested in engaging young people in the effort to fight hunger. “I really believe that every generation is called upon to leave a great mark on this planet,” he told Lamb. He believes Americans “have a wonderful tradition of philanthropy,” and hopes that generosity continues with today’s tech titans in Silicon Valley. “I think it’s crucial that the tech community and the new generation of wealth in America steps up,” he said.
A good way for them to start? By figuring out how to stretch a bowl of ramen during Live Below the Line week and donating the savings.
MORE: Could Technology Provide Solutions to Global Poverty?
This Young Child Has Big Plans to Feed His Hungry Peers
“Have there been times in the past twelve months when you did not have enough money to buy food that you or your family needed?” In North Carolina, one in five households answered yes to this question.
It’s worrying statistics like these that drives little William Winslow’s ambitious plan to end hunger in his community. Last year alone, he collected more than 1,400 pounds of food and more than $300 in donations, Raleigh news station WRAL reports. Even more incredibly is the fact that William is nowhere near his goal. The eight-year-old boy hopes to raise five times that amount this year, plus he’s planning a state-wide food drive next year.
“It just makes me feel bad when I hear that kids in my class are hungry,” he told the television station.
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William recently held his second annual food drive for BackPack Buddies, a food shuttle program that provides healthy meals to low-income families on the weekend.
The young go-getter even approached a local grocery store to ask if he could take food donations in the store’s parking lot, William’s dad, Mac Winslow, recalled to WRAL. “He looked at the store manager and said, ‘Come on, man. Think win-win.’ He said, ‘You get the money and I get the food for BackPack Buddies and we both win.”
We all know that hunger isn’t just a problem in North Carolina. In fact, one in six people — including one in five children — face hunger every day. No one deserves to go hungry, and it takes big hearts like William Winslow’s to make a difference.
“We’re just absolutely blown away by him, impressed by him,” his mother, Blythe Clifford, said. “His ability to empathize with his peers is just really incredible.”
How the Small Farmer Feeds the Majority of the World
One hundred years ago, the U.S. farm was drastically different than it is today. In 1900, the average farm was just 147 acres in size. Nowadays, it’s grown to be more than three times that size — 441 acres, to be exact, according to the Ag Council of America. So needless to say, the way a farmer goes about planting and gathering his crops from the fields is quite different in this age of industrialized agriculture than it was when the pioneers originally settled the Great Plains and turned it into the breadbasket of America.
But despite living in this age of factory farming, it’s still the small farmer that feeds the majority of our stomachs. This new video from Food Tank (a think tank) entitled Family Farmers + You = A Well Nourished World, reveals that family farmers are responsible for producing more than half (57 percent, to be exact) of the world’s food.
Not only do these growers put fresh, sustainable food on our plates, but small farmers also help boost local economies and give men and women financial security. Plus, they play a major part in protecting the planet as they are on the front lines of environmental disasters — such as floods, water scarcity, and extreme weather.
As a result, the United Nations designated 2014 as the International Year of Family Farming to highlight how small farmers play a major role in making the world a better place. As the planet becomes more urbanized and modernized, it’s clear that we can’t allow the family farm to become extinct.
Check out this video and learn how you can be a part of the solution.
Watch a Month’s Worth of Inspiration in 2 Minutes
With a Lego kit, a thumbtack and a few supplies from Home Depot, 12-year-old Shubham Banerjee built a budget-friendly Braille printer to help the visually impaired read. Watch this and four other amazing videos that inspired us in this month.
A Medical Emergency Landed This Physician on Food Stamps, Now She’s Fighting Hunger Stereotypes
Robin Dickinson was working as a physician in Denver while her husband looked after their two young children when she suffered two strokes. Unable to work because of the resulting dizziness and fatigue, Dickinson lived off savings while her husband took care of her and the kids. Their money dwindled to the point where they could only afford potatoes, oatmeal and rice. Then Dickinson realized her family qualified for food stamps, also known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
“There’s a safety net there for a reason. It’s for people in our situation,” she told Mary Jo Brooks of the PBS News Hour. “It has nothing to do with your education. It has nothing to do with how good a person you are or how hard you work. It has everything to do with your financial situation. And our financial situation was really bad.” Dickinson’s kids cheered when they were able to purchase fruits and vegetables for the first time in weeks with the help of SNAP.
As she recovered, Dickinson became determined to change people’s perceptions about the sort of people who rely on SNAP. She joined Hunger Free Colorado‘s photography program. The non-profit gave cameras to people receiving food assistance, and mounted an exhibit of their photos called “Hunger Through My Lens” at the Colorado State Capitol. Now Dickinson has a goal of working her way off public assistance within a year, and has started her own family practice to serve the poor. She can only work a few hours at a time, but she told Brooks, “We have a five-year goal of building my own building in order to have more services offered for my patients at affordable prices. And I have big plans.”
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This Florida Non-Profit Is Leading the Food Recovery Movement
As executive director of Boca Raton food bank Helping Hands, James Gavrilos saw firsthand the toll poverty was taking on his community. He also saw that too much good food was going to waste. The U.S. Department of Food and Agriculture has estimated that of all food produced in America, 30 to 40 percent of it is thrown away. People like Gavrilos are working to educate restaurateurs and grocery managers that they will face no liability from donating leftover food, and they can receive a tax deduction for their donation. “The food recovery movement is just beginning,” he told Anne Geggis of the Sun Sentinel. Helping Hands has recently added a new refrigerated truck and two more delivery trucks, managing to triple the amount of food donations they previously received from restaurants and supermarkets. The Whole Foods in Boca Raton regularly donates from every department except seafood, meat, and vitamins. Bill Harper, Helping Hands’ director of food and warehouse operations, told Geggis, “Everything we get is typically in the clients’ hands or being cooked within 72 hours. We are going to be there when we say we’re going to be there.” And Boca Raton’s neediest residents are thankful for that.
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