Fight Hunger. Spark Change. Help Walmart & Feeding America Fight Hunger in Your Local Community
“Our writing prompt yesterday was to finish the sentence ‘If I ruled the world…’ and my friend said she’d make everyone watch the movie Frozen a million times. It was funny.”
“What did you write?” I asked.
“I said I would make unicorns be real, teach everyone magic, make world peace, and get rid of world starvation.”
This is not the first time my eight-year-old brings up the topic of hunger in our conversations. She’s well aware that there are people in the world, people nationwide, people right in our community, and possibly even in her own school, that are struggling with hunger. Whenever there are food drives or donation collection stations at her school, in stores, etc., she aims to participate. We also look for other ways to help, whenever able, which is why I partnered with Walmart to share information on their Fight Hunger. Spark Change. campaign and encourage you to participate!
Fight Hunger. Spark Change. is an effort by Walmart and supplier partners to fight hunger and spark change in local communities by providing $3 million in grants to participating Feeding America food banks across the country. These food banks, along with local partner agencies, provide hunger relief to local residents in need of food assistance, many of them, children. In the Tampa Bay area, Feeding America Tampa Bay helps feed about 841,000 hungry residents annually. Of those 841,000, nearly 200,000 are children and more than 160,000 are seniors, many forced to choose between paying for food or medicine. Additionally, 94% of people that Feeding America Tampa Bay helps feed, either own or rent a home. (Data source and more details found here.)
Right now, through October 5, you can support Fight Hunger. Spark Change. by voting for a participating Feeding America food bank each day. The top 50 food banks will each receive a $60,000 grant which will benefit their local community. You can vote once a day on the Fight Hunger. Spark Change. site and can also find information on how to donate directly or volunteer in your local area. As you search for a participating Feeding America food bank in your local community, you can see how each food bank plans to use the $60,000 grant. Additionally, each food bank will be required to give a minimum of 25% ($15,000) of the funds to support at least one partner agency (i.e., a food pantry or soup kitchen); each partner agency is highlighted on the food bank’s voting page.
I encourage you to vote daily and spread the word to your friends and family. This is a chance to use social media for a little good – all it takes is a couple of clicks and you can help your local community receive money so that Feeding America can feed hungry residents in your area. We’ve been voting daily for our local Feeding America Tampa Bay food bank and plan to volunteer in the future by helping out in their warehouse. I’m also going to donate 20% of my earnings from this post to Feeding America Tampa Bay. Perhaps with small actions like these, one day we’ll be closer to my daughter’s wish of ridding the world of starvation.
