Tony and Dolly Ellis

We started this Twitter list over a year ago with names of peope who have been active (online or offline) in the discussion of hunger. Since then it's grown as more and more people find Twitter a valid way to bring the community online.   From time to time, I'll re-tweet the URL to this post. If you'd like your name added to this list, comment here with your Twittername, send Twitter reply to  @TysonFoods, or email me at ed.nicholson@Tyson dot com   I probably won't add you unless you ask me, so if you want to be added (some folks would prefer their names not be on the list), just ask!

There's also a comprehensive hunger twitterers list at http://twitter.com/TysonFoods/hunger-communityh to  which you can subscribe with one click. 
Now. You all go follow each other and talk amongst yourselves.

http://twitter.com/sharestrength  SOS primary account, run by Jeff Weidner
http://twitter.com/FeedingAmerica  Feeding America
http://twitter.com/billshore Billy Shore, founder of Share Our Strength
http://twitter.com/EricHerboso   Web and social media stuff for Share Our Strength
http://twitter.com/ozksfoodharvest Ozarks Food Harvest food bank in Springfield, MO
http://twitter.com/dpmichel Dan Michel--social media for Feeding America
http://twitter.com/ellendamaschino Ellen Damaschino SOS OFL Hall of Fame Chef and blogger
http://twitter.com/hungeractions Take Action on Hunger
http://twitter.com/rockforhunger  Rock for Hunger
http://twitter.com/FTWM Feed Them With Music
http://twitter.com/AndreaSherwood Andrea Sherwood--Tyson Foods Hunger Relief Team
http://twitter.com/ Ddavenport David Davenport, President & CEO, Capital Area Food Bank of Texas (CAFB)
http://twitter.com/kerri_qunell Kerri Qunell, VP, Communications, CAFB
http://twitter.com/lisa_goddard  Lisa Goddard, Advocacy and Online Marketing Director, CAFB
http://twitter.com/Karlacantu Karla Cantu, Agency Relations Director, CAFB
http://twitter.com/jcdwyer JC Dwyer, TFBN Statewide Advocacy Director, CAFB
http://twitter.com/kimberwillis Kim Willis, Communications Coordinator, CAFB
http://twitter.com/molls2009 Molly Robbins, Community Events Coordinator, CAFB
http://twitter.com/kirrasue  Kirra Hamman, Volunteer Resources Coordinator, CAFB
http://twitter.com/pastelmagickEmily Babb, Community Relations Assistant, CAFB
http://twitter.com/jelyon John Lyon, Faith-Based Capacity Building-VISTA, CAFB
http://twitter.com/tjordanova Tania Jordanova, Food Resources-VISTA, CAFB
http://twitter.com/clarknwark Michael Clark, Mitchell Communications
http://elisemitch  Elise Mitchell, Mitchell Communications
http://twitter.com/EricaBenavides San Antonio Food Bank Community Relations Manager
http://twitter.com/EndChildHunger  Michael Farver
http://twitter.com/susanapics Susan Adcock Photoblogger
http://twitter.com/ederdn Ed Nicholson, personal account
http://twitter.com/azganjar   A. Zganjar, Share Our Strength
http://twitter.com/SuzyTwohig Suzy Twohig, Share Our Strength
http://twitter.com/TSARedKettle The Salvation Army Red Kettle Campaign
http://twitter.com/ntfb   North Texas Food Bank (Dallas)
http://twitter.com/teamlivefeed Tom Robinson, Live Feed (Music for hunger relief, St. Louis)
http://twitter.com/FriendsofWFP Friends of the World Food Program
http://twitter.com/cookingwithamy Cooking With Amy-- Hunger Challenge Blogger
http://twitter.com/egratto Genie Gratto-- Hunger Challenge Blogger
http://twitter.com/marianiles Maria Niles--Hunger Challenge Blogger
http://twitter.com/TheFoodFeed Gayle Keck --San Francisco Food Bank
http://twitter.com/TexansVsHunger  Texas Food Bank Network
http://twitter.com/whatscooking  Michelle Stern
http://twitter.com/FoodBank4NYC  Food Bank for New York City
http://twitter.com/foodbankccs Food Bank of ContraCosta and Solano Counties
http://twitter.com/pdxmission Portland Rescue Mission, Portland, Oregon
http://twitter.com/FoodBankofDE  Food Bank of Delaware
http://twitter.com/ftmyerssoupktch Judy--Ft. Myers Soup Kitchen
http://twitter.com/brfoodbank   Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank
http://twitter.com/aafb  Association of Arizona Food Banks
http://twitter.com/Gleaners Gleaners Community Food Bank of Southeastern Michigan
http://twitter.com/HoustonFoodBank Houston Food Bank
 http://twitter.com/new_community  New Community Mobile Food Pantry, Naperville, IL
http://twitter.com/markarnoldy Mark Arnoldy-focuses on international malnutrition
 http://twitter.com/SchoolLunch Healthful meals & nutrition education for children
http://twitter.com/suzannenlee Suzanne Lee, Dir. of Communications & Mktg.   Care & Share Food Bank for Southern Colorado
http://twitter.com/CareandShareFB Care and Share Food Bank for Southern Colorado
http://twitter.com/Deca_Dietician  DeCA Dietician Ft. Lee, VA
http://twitter.com/homewatchnwa Homewatch Northwest Arkansas
http://twitter.com/CWS_Crop    Church World Service
http://twitter.com/FoodLinkNY  Foodlink Food Bank, Rochester, NY
http://twitter.com/2Harvest Second Harvest Heartland
http://twitter.com/missingmeals Second Harvest Heartland
http://twitter.com/GPCAH Greater Philadephia Coalition Against Hunger
http://twitter.com/SecondHelpings  Second Helpings, Indianapolis   
http://twitter.com/miriamskitchen Miriam's Kitchen--serving homeless in DC
http://twitter.com/2harvestCFL 2nd Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida
http://twitter.com/2ndharvest 2nd Harvest Food Bank of Santa Clara & San Mateo Counties
http://twitter.com/BreadfortheCity Bread for the City, Washington, DC
http://twitter.com/commfoodbanknj Community Food Bank of New Jersey
http://twitter.com/rfbo  Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma (OKC)
http://twitter.com/CityHarvest  City Harvest   New York,NY
http://twitter.com/WeldFoodBank  Weld Food Bank,   Greeley, Colorado
http://twitter.com/enklings  Tim Blair, hunger activist
http://twitter.com/poppypembroke Poppy Pembroke Communications Mgr.,Second Harvest Food Bank of Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties
 http://twitter.com/CleveFoodbank  Cleveland Food Bank
http://twitter.com/heifer  Heifer International
http://twitter.com/heiferportland  Heifer Portland
http://twitter.com/FoodBankCENC Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina
http://twitter.com/UnitedFoodBank    United Food Bank. Mesa, Arizona
http://twitter.com/kidsfoodbasket  Kids Food Basket.  Grand Rapids, Michigan
http://twitter.com/StMarysFoodBank St. Mary's Food Bank. Phoenix
http://twitter.com/BreadHolly Holly Hight--Bread for the World
http://twitter.com/hungerthon  WHY  whyhunger.org
http://twitter.com/fighthunger  World Food Programme
http://twitter.com/WorldFoodPrize World Food Prize
http://twitter.com/StopHunger MAZON--hunger relief organization 
http://twitter.comEndChildHunger  End Child Hunger, Michael Farver
http://twitter.com/firstthebasics First the Basics (helping people find hot meals)
http://twitter.com/URMission Union Rescue Mission, Little Rock
http://twitter.com/Mid_OHFoodbank Mid-Ohio Food Bank
http://twitter.com/walkforhunger  Kristin--Project Bread--The Walk for Hunger
http://twitter.com/phxmission  Phoenix Rescue Mission 
http://twitter.com/FreestoreFB Freestore Food Bank Cincinnati, OH
http://twitter.com/creativelyme  Sarah Hall
http://twitter.com/FeedINsHungry Emily Bryant
http://twitter.com/WalkandKnock Mary Chant  Walk and Knock-annual food drive
http://twitter.com/safoodbank  San Antonio Food Bank
http://twitter.com/swong7  Stacy Wong , Greater Boston Food Bank
http://twitter.com/Gr8BosFoodBank:  Greater Boston Food Bank
http://twitter.com/VermontFoodbank Vermont Food Bank
http://twitter.com/CleveFoodbank   Cleveland Foodbank
http://twitter.com/arfoodbank  Arkansas Foodbank Network
http://twitter.com/RIFoodBank Rhode Island Food Bank
http://twitter.com/HandsOnHartford    Hands on Hartford
http://twitter.com/ChicagoShares Chicago Shares
http://twitter.com/localfooddude Timothy Cipriano, New Haven School Systems and Local Food Dude
http://twitter.com/MOWFeedMore Meals on Wheels Serving Central Virginia
http://twitter.com/CVFBFeedMore Central Virginia Food Bank

Twitter Lists--Hunger Relief (one click following)
http://twitter.com/sharestrength/lists Share Our Strength (@ShareStrength) is doing a wonderful job of categorizing and listing its stakeholders involved in hunger relief on the Twitter List tool. 
http://twitter.com/TysonFoods/hunger-communityh

 

By Ed Nicholson

Ever heard that?  I have.
My group's "day job" is working with managers in the 100 U.S. communities where Tyson Foods has significant operations to engage them in activities in their communities.  A central component of our strategy is to get them involved in hunger relief efforts.
Way too often we hear the opinion expressed from our folks that hunger is not a significant challenge in their communities.  Way too often it's from people who are quite caring, connected and involved in their communities.  The problem is simply that they're not connected to hunger.  When we're able to involve them with groups who can open their eyes to the hunger in their hometowns, they invariably become enthusiastic hunger fighters. Once they're engaged, they're also much more open to donating.
This is happening in communities all across America.  We desperately need people in these communities on our side in crafting sustainable solutions to hunger in our country. 
My point:  Unless the hunger community can come up with better ways to connect stakeholders--and connect them locally--we're going to be swimming upstream with all of the well-constructed strategies, hard work, and resources that are currently being committed to ending hunger.  As an example, if a Congressman's constituents don't believe hunger is a significant problem in their own community, how are you going to get them to prioritize resources toward hunger relief when education, healthcare, and infrastructure (not to mention tax reduction) are all clamoring for those same resources?  Most in Congress, though they like to think globally, consistently vote locally.  
The problem is, we're so close to the issue, we don't understand how others can't perceive its gravity.  We believe describing the problem will connect people.  As long as people believe hunger is something that doesn't exist in their own community, all the rational description in the world won't work.
What tactics do you use to educate and engage stakeholders?
 

 

High School Students in Las Vegas Fighting Hunger for Three Square Food Bank

By Ed Nicholson

Take a look around food banks, food pantries and hunger relief organizations, and you'll see some phenomenal volunteers; engaged, dedicated, selfless, energetic, intelligent, passionate. 

Problem is, a whole lot of these volunteers are, shall we say, of "a certain age." (And I can use the categorization because I'm every bit of "a certain age" myself).  Not as many younger folks. 

So what's going to happen when those in our generation retire from volunteering? 

For the past three years, at Tyson Foods, we've been piloting The Student Food Drive with selected Feeding America food banks across the country.  This effort engages high school students in raising funds and food for their local food bank. It requires a coordinated effort among schools, food banks, and local sponsors, but done right, the results are phenomenal:  Students become aware of hunger in their own community, while developing leadership skills.  If the food bank makes the effective connections, they have stakeholders for life. 

In 2009, these food banks/ communities are joining others who have come on board to do Student Food Drives in the past three years:

Southeast Missouri Food Bank   Cape Girardeau, Missouri
Lowcountry Food Bank     Charleston, South Carolina
Mountaineer Food Bank    Gassaway, West Virginia
Channel One Food Bank    Rochester, Minnesota
Second Harvest Food Bank of East Central Indiana     Muncie, Indiana
Three Square Food Bank       Las Vegas, Nevada

So what are you doing in your community to "rejuvenate" the pool of enaged hunger fighters?

Last year, we had the opportunity to work with the San Francisco Food Bank and a great group of  bloggers to help raise awareness for hunger in the Bay Area during Hunger Action Month. It was a successful effort in which we asked for--and received--your assistance.   More than 2100 comments were submitted to this post, resulting in five truckoads of food being donated to Bay Area Food Banks.

We're going to try something similar this year, with the help of the Hunger Challenge bloggers and the Social Media Club of San Francisco.

The whole idea is to use social media tools to increase awareness of the issue of hunger.  We won't try to bribe you to become a Facebook fan. You don't have to buy any products.  Here's all you have to do:

There's a list of hunger facts below.  All Tweetable.  Tweet  or retweet any of them with the hashtag  #HChal and Tyson Foods will make a 100 pound donation (up to a total of 100,000 pounds) to the San Francisco Food Bank.  Blog about this effort and we'll donate 500 pounds.  Or comment to this post with your own verifiable fact (not opinion)  about hunger and we'll donate 100 pounds.   That's all you have to do. Let's see how far and fast we can spread these facts out there in Twittervillle. If you'd like to make reference to this post, here's a shortened URL:  http://bit.ly/sBE9x

Tweetable Facts About Hunger

More than 35 mil. people in the U.S. are on food stamps--up 3 million since Jan.  #HChal

App. 40% of families now on food stamps have "earned income"--up from just 25% 2 years ago.  #HChal #hungeraction

For every $1 donated @SFFoodBank can distribute $9 worth of groceries. #HChal #hungeraction

In San Francisco, 150K people are unsure where their next meal is coming from. #HChal #hungeraction

1 in 4 San Francisco children lack reg.access to food they need to learn, grow, & have a healthy start in life. #HChal

1 in 5 San Francisco adults can't count on daily meals they need to lead healthy, productive lives. #HChal

1 in 4 San Francisco seniors lack the nourishment need to control chronic health problems. #HChal

@SFFoodBank distributed over 33.5 million pounds of food in the past year--nearly 8% more than the year before. #HChal

60% of the clients @SFFoodBank served last year come from working families.  #HChal

In CA, the average food stamp recicipient gets $4 a day to spend on food.  #HChal #hungeraction

In CA, a single person can get food stamps only if their yearly gross income is $14,079 or less. #HChal

5.3 mil. Californians are living below the federal poverty line ($21,834 for a family of 4) #HChal

The number of households participating in @SFFoodbank's grocery pantry program is up 24% over last year. #HChal

You can help alleviate hunger with a single tweet this week:  http://bit.ly/sBE9x (no purchase or FB signup nec.) #HChal

By Ed Nicholson     

A cornerstone of our hunger relief strategy at Tyson Foods is engaging our employees (we call each other team members).  We figure if we can get 10% of our 100,000+  people invovled in the fight against hunger, that could have a significant and noticable impact.  It makes people feel good about the company for which they work. 

One of the biggest benefits of engagement, is it helps people come to a better understanding this very complex issue of hunger. 

We saw this come into play in the past couple of weeks as 40 summer interns working at the Tyson Corporate Headquarters volunteered to spend a day working at the Northwest Arkansas Food Bank. 

We sent a Flip cameral along with them, with which they shot the video attached. 

By Ed Nicholson

The day began early today, as the core RAGBRAI team headed out for Villisca at 4:30 A.M. to meet folks from Council Bluffs and Omaha at 6:00.  The profits from today's food sales went to the Churches Intercouncil Food Bank of Villasca. 

I got started a little bit later, staying back to post some stuff here.  As I was driving into the Iowa sunrise, I was reminded by NPR that 40 years ago today, man first set foot on the moon.

I'm old enough to remember it well, having been in front of the TV with the family as Walter Cronkite (RIP, Walter) exclaimed, "Man on the moon! Oh boy!" It was an event surrounded by wonder and hope: If we could accomplish this, it was going to be a marvelous future.

And there have indeed been some wonderous advancements. The fact that you're reading this on a communications channel that didn't exist back then is evidence. 

But the sad fact is, there are still a billion people on this planet, many of whom are dying, without adequate nourishment.  If we can figure out how to put a man on the moon, surely we can figure out how to feed the world's population.

I'm awfully proud of the team I worked with today, who at least made one small step in that direction. 

For a complete collection of photos from our week at RAGBRAI, go here.

 

By Ed Nicholson

Sorry for the week's hiatus.  I was out talking about social media last week--instead of participating in it. 

At Tyson, we've been involved in hunger relief for nine years.  Well, actually for the first couple of years, we weren't really involved--we just threw money and food at it.  Just like all the other good work "campaigns" we'd ever done before. 
But then an interesting thing happened.  We started visiting foodbanks during donations; getting to know their work.  We went to conferences, and heard a diversity of inspiring speakers.  Our employees started doing hunger relief work in their own communities. 
In the process, we became engaged.  Hunger relief has become an important part of what we're doing as a company.
But sometimes it does complicate the relationship we have with our non-profit partners.
Now that we have some time invested in the issue, we have opinions.  We ask questions.  Sometimes we challenge conventions. Some might see it as interfering where we don't belong.   We're not always right, but we're engaged. 

So here's your chance to  voice an opinion and help us become better partners.  Please comment:   Where do we draw the line between contributing and meddling?  Should we produce food and leave the strategic work to the experts?  If you're a non-profit, does it aggravate you that someone from the outside would presume to tell you how to do your job?  Would it be a better world if ultimately corporations were not even involved in social issues? 
 
You know I love dissent.  So let me have some.

 

                                                                                                      photo fdecomite--Creative Commons

By Ed Nicholson

Anyone who reads this blog regularly knows that it's pretty much a lovefest for the hunger community. That's because I love you. You do God's work, and the world would be a much worse place without you.

But I have to tell you, as well as you feed people, some of you are just not very good communicators. A year ago, I asked the question, "Where is the online discussion of hunger?" Deafening silence.

I asked it again yesterday. Not much debate there, because frankly, there's just not a lot of online discussion.

Come on people. We're in The Age of Conversation. Exciting new communication tools. Two-way dialogue with your stakeholders. More golden opportunities for community building than ever in history.

Yet the overwhelming majority of the communication I receive from some hunger organizations is, "Please send us another ten dollars. It will help feed twenty hungry kids." I know this. So do the tens of thousands of your other supporters. It sounds eerily like a 1980's Sally Struthers TV spot.

Are we not important enough for a meaningful conversation from you? Because if we're not, I'm going to tell you something that will be hard for you to hear: You're going to lose us. Someone else will come and take your place. Someone who will engage. Someone who will listen, and not simply push their own messages out. Someone who will make us feel as though our voices are as important as yours.

What do you think about that?

 

 

 

By Ed Nicholson

When we started this blog in 2007, one of our goals was to contribute to the online community in the discussion of hunger.  Trouble was, after looking, we just couldn't find much online discussion.  About a year ago, I asked, "Where's the online discussion of hunger?" in this post, and invited anyone who has something going to connect.  Deafening silence.

So I'm asking the question again:  Where's the online discussion of hunger?  Are there thought leaders asking  compelling questions, stimulating engaging conversations with thoughtful answers and healthy dissent?

If so, where?  If not, why not? 

Is this issue not important enough?

I have some personal opinions. Don't make me pull them out.

By Ed Nicholson

One of our goals with this site is to be a positive force in helping bring the discussion of hunger online, creating awareness for the issue and those instrumental in the fight against hunger.
When we came to the issue nine years ago, we found a lively discussion already occurring among a passionate community of those involved in hunger relief.  
We believe there's still enormous upside potential to bring that discussion online via social networking tools, and to expand the community of decidated hunger fighters well beyond where it is today.
Fortunately, there are some hunger relief communicators blazing the trail. They're using the tools, and most importantly, they're engaging in two-way conversations, not simply broadcasting their messages.   If you're involved in the issue, these are people and groups you'll probably want to follow, if you aren't already.

Share Our Strength
Billy Shore, Founder and CEO of Share Our Strength, has always been a tremendous communicator.  Share Our Strength now has Jeff Wiedner doing an exemplary job of heading up online communications, using all of the  popular social networking tools, including a Twitter account   Facebook cause pages,   LinkedIn,  a very nicely-done YouTube channel, and a Flickr account.   In addition to Jeff, who runs the organization's Twitter account  Billy Shore, Eric Herboso, and Suzy Twohig also have Twitter accounts.

Feeding America
Feeding America has a very well-produced YouTube channel, a quickly-growing Twitter account and active Facebook  and MySpace  pages.  Feeding America's existing large and active community, enhanced by strong corporate support ensures that pretty much any tool the organization adopts will rapidly gain an active following.

Capital Area Food Bank of Texas (Austin)
This organization was early to the game and remains a leader in their use of social media.  In addition to authoring for their blog, CEO, David Davenport; VP of Communications Kerri Qunell; Advocacy and Online Marketing Director, Lisa Goddard, and several others from the food bank engage regularly with stakeholders through a number of different channels, including Twitter and Facebook accounts.   YouTube, Facebook page, Flickr.   Definitely some best practices here.

Food Bank for New York City
A relatively new blog shows bright promise as the centerpiece of this leading food bank's social media efforts (they're showing true social media savvy by asking readers to help name their blog )  Additionally the food bank has a Facebook cause page, as well as a YouTube Channel and Twitter Account  Online Communications Manager Daniel Buckley does a good job of coordinating social media efforts and using the tools to engage.

North Texas Food Bank (Dallas)
Another great example of a Feeding America food bank using a variety of social networking tools, including a blog,  a Facebook page, a  MySpace page and a YouTube channel.   Mark Armstrong manages the food bank's Twitter account.

Texas Food Bank Network
A coalition of Feeding America food banks in Texas, this organization runs an advocacy blog , as well as  a Twitter account . 

Community Cooperative Ministeries Incorporated
This Fort Myers, Florida agency is doing a great job of creating hyperlocal awareness, focused on challenges of hunger and poverty in their area. They have a Twitter account and are using new media tools, including  Pitch Engine's social media news release service to create awareness of  their activities, as well as using vimeo to post online video. Their CEO, Sarah Owen (who guest-posted here last week), is also a Twitterer.  Take a look at their campaign designed to raise awareness of kids at risk of hunger over the weekends.

No doubt there are many other great social media efforts occuring among hunger organizations around the country. Let me know what's going on in your community, and we'll feature it here.  The goal is to connect.