Second Harvest: Hunger Action Month

By Lois Rockhill

September is Hunger Action Month. How are you planning to participate? Food drive? Fundraising? Volunteering? Guest speaker? It would be a great time to involve your business, church, family, club or service organization in an activity that addresses hunger.

Feeding America, formerly America’s Second Harvest, has organized Hunger Awareness Day for years. Here in east central Indiana, Second Harvest Food Bank did region wide Tailgate Program distributions in each county to bring awareness to the issue of hunger.

Hunger in America and here in east central Indiana is not easily recognized. You may see someone ahead of you in the grocery line using food stamps. Your church or community organization may sponsor a food pantry or a soup kitchen. Even so, you may not know that 23,538 households in Blackford, Delaware, Grant, Henry, Jay, Madison, Randolph and Wabash counties spent $5.5 million in food stamps last month in an effort to feed themselves and their children. You may not realize that 9,700 of your neighbors in these eight counties ate food from a food pantry or soup kitchen last week and that 35 percent were under the age of 18.

Second Harvest Food Bank’s Tailgate Program has opened eyes in each of these counties. When residents in need line up 100 cars deep to wait for food assistance, others in the community take note. Many are shocked. They report back to us that they just did not know that so many in their town were struggling to make ends meet. Area pantries have provided food assistance for years. They have done so behind closed doors. The Tailgate Program held in an open-air venue certainly tells the tale of need.

This year we are being challenged to take action. Awareness is critical but hunger is a problem that calls for immediate action. This year we want you to do something about it during the month of September.

Here are some ideas:

1. Phone Tiffany Jones at (765) 287-8698 or e-mail foodbank@curehunger.org and register to attend our big day Sept. 17 with a ribbon-cutting at 4:30 p.m., a volunteer activity following, and Dinner on the Dock at 6 p.m.

2. Go to our Web site at www.curehunger.org and locate the list of pantries in each county. Call one and volunteer to help. You can also get this information by dialing 2-1-1.

3. Skip Lunch for Hunger — donate the amount of money you would spend on buying lunch for one day, week or month to support the fight against hunger. To do this at work you might distribute copies of the menu from a popular lunch location near the office and have employees donate the cost of the item they would have ordered for lunch.

4. Hold a Non-Event — there is nothing better than a function you do not have to attend. You are asking participants to be part of the fight against hunger by not coming to your function and making a donation to feed hungry Americans instead. This idea can be done with business meetings, dinners, auctions, golf tournaments, costume contests, 5K run/walk, all that never actually happen!

5. Jeans Days — If your office has a dress code that prohibits jeans or casual dress, find out if you can have Jeans or Casual Dress Days or month. Ask your employees to pay $5 per day for the opportunity to wear their jeans to work. Donate the proceeds to help feed hungry Americans.

6. Pledge 100 percent employee participation in your local United Way/Fund campaign. Check the list of programs, agencies and initiatives funded to see how hunger is addressed.

I know this is only a start. There are many actions you can take to end hunger in your community. We all know that good jobs, decent benefits, dependable transportation, affordable health care, nurturing childcare, responsible eldercare are all components to self-sufficiency. As our communities work toward these necessary accomplishments, we must ensure that our neighbors have enough to eat. Please reach out. Take action. Raise your voice against hunger.

Lois Rockhill is executive director of Second Harvest Food Bank of East Central Indiana. She can be reached at lrockhill@curehunger.org