Hunger Is A Global and Local Issue: Some Ways To Take Action

Photo by Danamdefebbo

Once a month, my kids' school holds a school spirit day which includes a school-wide community service project.  The younger kids are asked to bring an item in that is donated to a local community group in need.  For October, the school is requesting donations of canned food for the local food pantry.

"With living costs soaring, many local families are struggling to makes ends meet, and nowhere can it be seen with more clarity than on the lengthening lists of people being helped by the local food pantry."

Hunger is not only local issue, but also a global one.  So, while we were in the grocery store picking up some extra canned goods, I was thinking about the different hunger awareness campaigns that have come across my email this past week or two - and wondering how I might creatively take some personal action myself (beyond buying a few extra canned goods during our weekly grocery trip). 

Then I remembered the invitation to participate in the Weight Watchers Lose for Good, a campaign created to empower people to get healthier while also giving back to others in need. The program addresses two global epidemics – obesity and chronic hunger and malnutrition.   

For every pound lost with Weight Watchers during a six-week period, beginning September 7 and ending October 18, Weight Watchers will donate the cost of one pound of food -- up to one million dollars. The funds will go to two hunger-fighting organizations:  Share Our Strength, which works to make sure no child in America grows up hungry, and Action Against Hunger, which provides immediate and long-term solutions for hunger to people around the world. 

So, I thought - why not drop that ten pounds that I've been meaning to lose and help some other folks too?  I signed up. 

I also kept thinking about the inspiring social media infused fund raising that Connie Reece, David Neff, and Mike Chapman (through the local Austin Social Media Club and 501 Tech Club) have been doing for the Austin Foodbank.  I also wondered if there were some ways that I could support this issue that were more immediate than losing ten pounds?   I also kept thinking about strategies to keep in me on track to lose for good.

So, here's what else I did:

1.   Set Up A Campaign at ThePoint

I set up a campaign over at ThePoint.  If I lose ten pounds, the Austin Foodbank will receive a donation.  What's cool is that you can pledge a donation too, but you don't have to pay unless I lose the ten pounds.   I figure that ought to give me some will power.

2.  Social Actions TwitterFeed

I've set up a the Social Actions Twitterfeed to search and post for hunger related campaigns and actions.  The Social Actions Twitterfeed will search through 24 platforms for hunger related campaigns and automatically post them to my automated twitter account.  (I have two Twitter accounts - one for relationship building and one where I will post automated feeds.  I'm mostly doing this to test out what the Twitterfeed can do.

3.  I left A Comment To Help With Tyson Foods Hunger Relief in California

This was soooo much easier than resisting chocolate.  All I had to do was leave a comment on this post.  For every comment on the post receives, Tyson Foods will donate 100 pounds of high-quality protein (up to a total of 200,000 pounds) to the six Bay Area food banks.    So, leave a comment and let them know that Beth sent you.

4.  Signed up for Blog Action Day

Blog Action Day is an annual nonprofit event that aims to unite the world’s bloggers, podcasters and videocasters, to post about the same issue on the same day. The goal is to raise awareness and trigger a global discussion.  The focus is on poverty reduction and certainly hunger awareness is part of that theme.

How else would you take action against local or global hunger issues?  What are the best examples of hunger organizations using social media to raise awareness or dollars for this cause?

Comments

[Ed Nicholson]

Beth
Thanks so much for your mention of the Bay Area hunger relief effort (and previously, the similar effort in Austin). It's really impressive to watch the engagement activity spike when people such as you with signficant networks help create awareness.
Of the hunger relief organizations we've had the privelege of working with, I'd point in particular to what Lisa Goddard is doing at the Capital Area Food Bank of Texas in Austin. See http://austinfoodbank.wordpress.com/ Check out their "Hunger is Unacceptable" photo submission effort, in which they actively engage stakeholders in making a statement about hunger in a very creative way.
Kudos for what you're personally doing.

[Amy Jussel]

Beth, this is near and dear to my heart being in the S.F. Bay Area, so I HAVE just left a post for them and DID tell 'em you sent me!

It validates that CSR can interplay with NP goals seamlessly to pay it forward in the social media realm if we all unite and align in purpose.

Thanks for the info; ironically, I'd just been voting for the Amex/hunger project via Gavin Heaton's request for Saving the Lives of Malnourished Children, and I mentioned in the forum that I'd like for them to win in 'Beth Kanter America's Giving' style! ;-)

Thanks for all you do, goddess of goodness!

[Amy Jussel]

Oh, yeah, here's the link to Gavin's cause...though I think their voting ends today? http://www.membersproject.com/project/view/OZH1P1

[Amy Sherman]

Thanks for help publicize the offer that Tyson has made our local food banks. I participated in the Hunger Challenge where bloggers tried to live on $1 per meal for a week. It was a great exercise in "walking in someone else's shoes" it also raised awareness, raised money and a fantastic donation from Tyson. http://hungerchallenge.blogspot.com/

[Dan Michel]

Beth -

Thank you for helping out many of our food banks across the nation. As Hunger Action Month comes to an end, people like you stepping up is the way that we can end hunger in America.

Dan Michel
Feeding America (formerly named America's Second Harvest)

[Joe Solomon]

Beth - Thanks for sharing these awesome examples of easy ways to use social media for a cause. Inspired by your post, I created a Twitter mashup - http://www.twitter.com/hungeractions

Anyone can follow it and discover ways to take action on hunger from all over the world ...

[Beth Kanter]

Been getting some interesting examples of online fundraising for hunger
http://www.popcornforkids.org/

[michael]

Hey Beth are you familiar with Blog Acton Day 2008 | poverty -- blog about hunger on 10/15/08 --over 4,000 bloggers ready to post on topic ..will you? http://blogactionday.org/

[World Food Program USA]

Friends of the World Food Program is using various social media to generate awareness about global hunger.
Check us out on twitter (http://twitter.com/FriendsofWFP)
Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Washington-DC/Friends-of-the-World-Food-Program/20724472888)
Facebook Causes (http://apps.facebook.com/causes/beneficiaries/977?m=0b1f7)
and our new BLOG (http://www.friendsofwfp.typepad.com)!

[Beth Kanter]

http://www.blogher.com/hunger-challenge-how-eat-3-day

[Marilyn Pratt]

This post and your tweet are timely. I'm off to another set of large convocations of geeks and businessy folks in a corporate setting for whom I serve as a "Community Evangelist". Those who know my presence on the corporate website know that I champion individual responsiblity around CSR topics.
I'm discovering that parellel to the official activities of my employer we can generate personal commitment through the powerful medium of stories.
Our organization works with the World Food Program and our online community members share their knowledge which translates to donations to the WFP. SAP FeedingKnowledge
The program is embedded into the recognition program of our members, which include customers, employees, partners from around the world SAP Points for Food
In addition, I travel, video camera in hand, to our various SAP TechED conferences. What I find is that there are attendees that have powerful personal stories. I'm making it my mission to link them to the formal local CSR activities of my organization and feature these stories actively on our community blogspace. Thanks so much for the work you do Beth. You are my heroine.

[Marilyn Pratt]

Sorry, that would be www.sapfeedingknowledge.com

[Beth Kanter]

http://hungerrelief.tyson.com/blog/2008/9/29/social_media_for_social_good.aspx