Today, PledgeToEndHunger.com was officially launched. This is a website designed to bring to light the very real problem of childhood hunger in America. If you have a spare minute, you can help feed a lot of hungry kids.
I found this on Strength.org: "The reality is that more than 12.4 million children in America-that's one in six-are at risk of hunger. And it's likely that these children will endure lifelong consequences as a result of having limited access to nutritious foods. In fact, they're more likely to suffer:
- Weaker immune systems
- More stomachaches
- Headaches
- Colds
- Ear infections
- Fatigue
- More hospitalizations
- Behavioral difficulties
- Impaired performance in school-academically, athletically and socially
- A whole host of other lifelong consequences "
The new website and initiative are actually a joint effort of Tyson Foods, Share Our Strength, Hum. Minds at Work., Kompolt, and MediaSauce. It is designed to make it easy for people to do something meaningful in the short-term and to create a dialogue about solving the underlying issues at hand.
Harnessing the Excitement of SXSW ‘09
With thousands of highly connected people converging later this month for South by Southwest 2009 (SXSW ‘09) right here in Austin, Texas, the plan is to channel everyone's excitement to help deliver a Tyson semi-trailer truck full of food products to the Capital Area Food Bank of Texas. This will provide 140,000 meals for children in Austin.
"What Can I Do to Help?"
By simply signing an online pledge to share the website with others, volunteer, and/or give, you will trigger a 35 lb food donation from Tyson. That means every person who joins the movement will help feed 140 children! With 1,000 people taking the pledge, we can make sure the Tyson semi-trailer will arrive in Austin during the SXSW '09 interactive festival.
The website also includes a Wall of Champions that lists every individual, corporation, and non-profit helping to promote the Hunger Pledge. To become a Champion yourself, all you need to do is:
- Sign the Hunger Pledge
- Write a blog post (if you have one) endorsing the Hunger Pledge
- Encourage others to join you
The website also has a wide variety of social media sharing tools, banners, avatars, etc. to make it easy for you to share and promote. (Note: The Twitter hashtag is #HungerPledge.)
How This Can Help Your Community, Too
If we are successful in surpassing 1,000 pledges, Tyson has agreed to send up to two more truckloads of food to the states who generate the most pledges. So by helping us send a semi-trailer truck to Austin, you might be able to get one sent to your home state, too.
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Great stuff J....we all need to pick a charity that we're passionate about. Needless to say, I'm pleased you're doing this.
Hi Jason! You know I know just what our contributions can do for these children and the amount of medical conditions that can be prevented from a healthy diet, or at least vitamin-rich foods. What a wonderful cause to campaign for and thanks for the new website information--I'll definitely share it with others!
Larry - Thanks, man!
Debe - If you want to share this, feel free to re-blog it or write your own. Either way, it will help.
Good cause, good job Jason, keep up the good info passing, with your network it has to be huge!
Sure thing, Jason! I'll re-blog for this wonderful cause.
Steve - So far, it has brought in 34 new pledges since I wrote the post and tweeted about it! Makes me happy to make an impact.
Debe - Great! Thanks -
Thanks so much for posting this, and doing your part to end childhood hunger.
Jason - thank you very much for sharing this!!! I have added this to my Flatirons Fun blog and hope every little bit we can all do will help!