Pete Nebhut

By Elise Mitchell

As Ed mentioned in his post earlier this week, the donation last Saturday to the Northwest Arkansas Food Bank received a lot of positive media coverage and helped bring to light the hard work of many volunteers.  We’ve posted some of those stories here from our local TV stations KFSM, KHOG and KNWA and appreciate their coverage of the event.

While sometimes it can be tough to get media attention for good news, we’ve actually found media to be very receptive to our outreach for Tyson’s donations to food banks around the country.  Our guess is that increasingly, hunger is newsworthy, which is both good and bad, of course.  Good because so many people are actively trying to help those in need; bad because the need continues to grow as a result of the economic stress people are enduring. 

Yes, we’ve been fortunate to earn our share of coverage, but our ultimate goal in doing this is to continue to shine the spotlight on the cause itself.  Hopefully, from greater awareness will come greater resources.  With all of us working together as well as greater attention brought to the fight against hunger, we can continue to make a difference.
 

Elise Mitchell is the President and CEO of Mitchell Communications.

 Facebook is the social media channel of choice for a huge and growing segment of our population.  Communications-savvy hunger relief organizations are getting on board, opening the channel to their stakeholders.

I did a quick scan across the interwebs and found a few hunger orgs with Facebook presence.  URLs are posted below in what I hope to be a continually updated list, sort of like the Twitter list we started a while back. 

Please let us know if you want to be added.  When you're added, I'll send out a tweet letting the world know about your addition.

Of course, if you want to add, Tyson Foods, we'd LOVE to be your friend
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/pages/Tyson-Foods-Hunger-Relief/200228386775

http://www.facebook.com/ShareOurStrength Share Our Strength
http://www.facebook.com/FeedingAmerica Feeding America
http://www.facebook.com/CapitalAreaFoodBankofTexas Capital Area Food Bank of Texas
http://www.facebook.com/FeedHopeNow Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida
http://apps.facebook.com/causes/38829?m=5ce60ecc  Food Bank for New York City
http://www.facebook.com/feednorthtexas North Texas Food Bank
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Urbana-IL/Eastern-Illinois-Foodbank/26581903414 Eastern Illinois Food Bank
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Regional-Food-Bank-of-Northeastern-New-York/58319747906 Regional Food Bank of Northeastern New York
http://www.facebook.com/cfbeo?ref=ts Community Food Bank of Eastern Oklahoma
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Hatfield-MA/The-Food-Bank-of-Western-MA/43659072674  Food Bank of Western Massachusettes
http://www.facebook.com/akroncantonfoodbank?ref=search&sid=1068741394.2307815536..1 Akron Canton Regional Food Bank
http://www.facebook.com/arkansasfoodbank Arkansas Foodbank Network
http://www.facebook.com/breadfortheworld Bread for the World
http://apps.facebook.com/causes/236111?m=4a83263b Capital Area Food Bank (DC)
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Gleaners-Community-Food-Bank/50956457250 Gleaners Food Bank of SE Michigan
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=26853862061 Food Bank of Central & Eastern NC
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Gleaners-Food-Bank-of-Indiana-Inc/201748935122 Gleaners Food Bank of Indiana
http://www.facebook.com/fooddepository  Greater Chicago Food Depository
http://www.facebook.com/MillenniumPromise?v=wall Millennium Promise
http://www.facebook.com/hungercoalition Greater Philadelphia Coalition Against Hunger
http://www.facebook.com/mazonusa MAZON
http://www.facebook.com/miriamskitchen Miriam's Kitchen
http://www.facebook.com/oxfamamerica Oxfam America
http://www.facebook.com/ozarksfoodharvest Ozarks Food Harvest
http://www.facebook.com/phoenixrescuemission Phoenix Rescue Mission
http://www.facebook.com/safoodbank San Antonio Food Bank
http://www.facebook.com/pages/San-Francisco-Food-Bank/76025018070?ref=nf San Francisco Food Bank
http://www.facebook.com/SecondHarvestFoodBank Second Harvest Food Bank of Orange County
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Second-Harvest-Food-Bank-of-the-Mahoning-Valley/140008458558?ref=ts+ Second Harvest Food Bank of the Mahoning Valley
http://www.facebook.com/firstfoodbank St. Mary's Food Bank Alliance
http://www.facebook.com/endchildhungeraz AZ Partnership to End Childhood Hunger
http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Greater-Boston-Food-Bank/80080296729?ref=ts Greater Boston Food Bank
http://www.facebook.com/pages/United-food-Bank/19747724985?ref=ts United Food Bank
http://www.facebook.com/WHYhunger World Hunger Year
http://www.facebook.com/pages/FreestoreFoodbank/69302491713?v=wall&viewas=1636772575 Freestore Foodbank  Cincinnati
http://www.facebook.com/#/atlfoodbank?ref=ts  Atlanta Community  Food Bank
http://www.facebook.com/regionalfoodbank Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma
http://www.facebook.com/unionrescuemissionla Union Rescue Mission
http://www.facebook.com/invisiblepeopletv  InvisiblePeople.tv
http://www.facebook.com/RICFB   Rhode Island Food Bank
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Raleigh-NC/Inter-Faith-Food-Shuttle/6955858977?ref=ts Food Shuttle, Raleigh
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Second-Harvest-Food-Bank-of-Northwest-NC/146908884459 Second Harvest Food Bank of NW NC
http://www.facebook.com/foodbankcny Food Bank of Central New York
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/pages/Food-Bank-of-Eastern-Michigan/222709748781?ref=ts Food Bank of Eastern Michigan
http://www.facebook.com/pages/End-Childhood-Hunger/116907571237?v=wall  End Childhood Hunger
http://www.facebook.com/people/Cleveland-Foodbank/1426777511 Cleveland Foodbank
http://www.facebook.com/pages/SEMO-Food-Bank/177067648929?ref=nf Southeast Missouri Food Bank
http://www.facebook.com/#/HarvestforHunger Harvest for Hunger
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Greater-Pittsburgh-Community-Food-Bank/145889928474 Pittsburgh Food Bank
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Three-Square/56816738668 Three Square Food Bank, Las Vegas
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/Hunger101AZ?ref=profile St. Mary's Foodbank Alliance
http://www.facebook.com/ChannelOneFoodBankandFoodShelf?ref=share  Channel One Food Bank
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Community-Food-Bank/237804206990 Community Food Bank, Fresno, CA

 

UofA student athletes help distribute more than 40k lbs. of food to NW AR hunger relief agencies

By Ed Nicholson

When athletes make the news, it's usually for one of two reasons: Either they're excelling on the field or messing up in public. What a lot of people don't realize--and what  doesn't get reported often enough--is that most university athletic programs have student life involvement programs that regularly engage kids in worthy activities in their communities.
This past Saturday, on a cold, damp morning, perfect for sleeping in, more than 130 University of Arkansas athletes came out to assist in the delivery of 40,000 pounds of donated food to the Northwest Arkansas Food Bank.
It was the fourth year in a row Tyson Foods and the UofA had worked with national organization Lift Up America on the event, which works to engage student athletes in community service, donates food to the food bank, and creates awareness for hunger in our home community.  More than 50 of the food bank's agencies came out to receive food.
All three of the local broadcast affiliates showed up, as well as two newspapers.  Lots of folks got fed and the athletes got some well-deserved positive attention for their off-the-field good works.
I'll be posting more stuff from Saturday's event in the next few days.

 

By Ed Nicholson

We get lots of plaques at Tyson Foods for being a donor.  Plaques, trophies, plexiglass awards.  Nice gestures from organizations who do tremendous work in their communities.  But managing them can become an issue. There’s not enough room to display them, and they’re eventually discarded.    So really, folks, save the money.  It’s not that we don’t appreciate the gratitude, but…

Here’s an idea for an alternative (and thanks to my colleague, the indefatigable Sue Brockway, for this suggestion):   If you sincerely appreciate a company’s work on your behalf, send a letter to their CEO or one of their board members.  Tell them about hunger in your community.  Tell them about the positive impact of the company’s donation.   Thank them for their role in making it happen.  If you happen to have a board member, who's one of their customers, get them to sign the letter.  There’s a very good chance the letter will get circulated among some senior leaders.  And when it comes time for review and approval of the continued work on behalf of your issue, what you’ve done will have had a far more positive affect than that plaque they’ll never see.

By Ed Nicholson

In August of 2008, we did our first social media engagement donation with the Capital Area Food Bank in Austin.  There weren't many such efforts going on at that time (a lot since). It's been cited as a case study several times, and since then, we've considered CAFB a great partner. As I've said many times, they are definitely among the best food banks at using social networking channels in reaching their stakeholders with the crystal-clear message, "HUNGER IS UNNACEPTABLE." 

Today we're announcing a new effort!

For the next couple of weeks CAFB will be holding their Souper Bowl of Caring drive,  in conjunction with the largest youth-led food and fund  raising effort in the country.  In support of this event, for every comment you make to this blog post telling us you think hunger is unacceptable (if you want to add why, that would be even better), we'll donate 100 pounds of food.   We'll do the same if you post it to your own blog or if you send a Tweet with the hashtag #SBOCAustin.  We'll keep donating up to a 35,000 pound truckload.

So come on. Support the fabulous work of the Capital Area Food Bank. Tell the world HUNGER IS UNACCEPTABLE.

 

Students from the '09 Las Vegas Student Food Drive

By Susan Brockway

At Tyson Foods, we recently wrapped up our third year of sponsorship of the Student Food Drive.  For food banks and families at risk, it is now time to evaluate if this was a success or a program that did not meet expectations.  My job is to assemble the numbers, look at the investment, measure the outcomes and see if in fact this was a good investment of resources over the past three years. 
I would be the person grant writers hate. 
As I took calculator in one hand and pen in the other, my unbiased evaluation was tempered by one memorable experience:  A sixteen year old young woman came and talked to me in Las Vegas and told me a story about a family's kids who had only one certain meal a day, and that was at school.  Often, the family split up at friends' homes for dinner.  Most of the time everyone got something to hold them over until the next day. The family was hers.Yet this young woman brought in one case of canned fruit and said her contribution would help another family. My heart hurt for her, not out of sympathy but out of pride. Never underestimate the power of our children.  In the end, they understand more than their years. 
It was an honor to meet the hundreds of young people who will change how we look at hunger.  Support them on their journey.