Art Molay

Anderson Free Press Article By Lois Rockhill, ED of A2H, East Central Indiana

Building a Reservoir of Good in the Face of Uncertainty: Key Takeaways from CECP's 2008 Corporate Philanthropy Summit

Donation to help food bank facing rising needs, higher costs  (San Bernardino and Riverside counties)

Market-based approach to hunger relief

Oregonians' needs rise with prices

What is Growing Faster Than Jack's Beanstalk?  Childhood Hunger! (Baltimore Taste of the Nation)

By Ed Nicholson
Another in a series about social media and how those engaged in the issue of hunger might use them to build community.  If you’re already using these tools, this will be elementary stuff.  If you’re not, I encourage you to try them out.

Twitter is a social media tool that’s seen explosive growth recently. Kind of a cross between instant messaging and blogging (sometimes called “micro-blogging”) Twitter allows you to send updates—“Tweets”—of 140 characters or less to a network of “followers”  Tweets can be received either via the Web or an instant-messaging device. 

Twitter is used to inform, promote, stimulate discussion, build networks, and communicate among friends.  Its most effective adherents use it for all of these.

I won’t go into much detail about how to effectively use Twitter.  Too many have already done a great job of that, and some links are posted below.

There are a number of other Twitter-like applications—Pownce, Plurk, and others, but Twitter is the most widely-used.

Twitter is definitely an acquired taste. I can almost assure you, you won’t “get it” when you first sign up for it.  In order to understand its potential, you’ll need to begin following several people. A recommended “starter list” is included below.  It’s also important that you send updates of your own.

I believe you will be using Twitter, or a Twitter-like application someday.  Might as well start now.  Go to http://twitter.com and sign up (it’s free).  You’re welcome to “follow” me.  Do that by going to http://twitter.com/ederdn and clicking the little "follow" button under my name.  Then send an update that includes @ederdn, and I’ll follow you back. Let me know that you read this message.  Let’s see if we can build a group of Twitter users within this community.

A few randomly selected articles on twitter (there are hundreds--Google "basic twitter" if you want more)

Twitter for Beginners

9 Ways to Find People to Follow on Twitter

Power Tweeting: 101 Everyday Uses for Twitter

Get into Twitter or Get Outta Public Relations--Todd Defren

These are good people to follow as you start out. Don't be shy. Go to these links and hit the "follow" button.

http://twitter.com/chrisbrogan  Chris Brogan

http://twitter.com/kanter  Beth Kanter (blogs about social media and non-profits)

http://twitter.com/jowyang Jeremiah Owyang

http://twitter.com/steverubel Steve Rubel

http://twitter.com/daveiam David Neff--social media guru for American Cancer Society see also:

http://twitter.com/AmericanCancer How a national non-profit reaches Twittering stakeholders

http://twitter.com/clarknwark Michael Clark

http://twitter.com/ederdn me

You might also try putting your geographic location in Twitter's search bar to see who in your area is using Twitter.

If you have a good instant messaging plan, I recommend turning the "device update" on for one or two of those you follow.

Good luck and let me know how it goes.

By Susan Brockway

The last two weeks have been a struggle for my adopted family.  She has lost some of her hours at work and is really struggling with fuel prices.  We have talked twice and shared 3 recipes.  I have made a commitment to her to share from my garden, which is finally in the ground after large spells of rain. 
I have been shopping 4 times and it continues to amaze me what people of all socioeconomic groups are putting in their carts and what is NOT being included.  Since I grew up in a home where we did not spend money on the limited non-nutritious food that was available, I am still saddened when I see struggling moms and dads so tired after working two or three jobs, spending money they don’t have on packaged meals with little to no nutrition.  What is the answer? 
I am still optimistic that working one-on-one with families will help.  I have heard from some of you who have also done the same.  Maybe a grassroots movement is what we need to look at in the future, making a difference one person at a time and then empowering them to do the same.
In addition, flooding in the Midwest is going to be a repeat crisis of New Orleans, but with a twist.  While driving through Iowa in the past week I saw green fields of rolling hills, and picture perfect farms.  Cities like Cedar Rapids and Iowa City have experienced more water than ever intended, and the real victims are going to be middle class families who thought they were insured, but will find there is nothing to start over with.  Many of their homes will be much like those in New Orleans, inhabitable. 
We will have people screaming for reasons why this happened, while we have not yet addressed why it happened in a city of rich in tradition and music and culture almost three years past.  Having spent a good deal of time in states hit by Hurricane Katrina, I can tell you the only difference between what people feel in the lower ninth ward and Cedar Rapids is a change of zip code.  I predict food banks and their agencies are going to see an increased surge of people needing resources, only to find their federal state dollars cut because someone is going to have to pay the billions, not millions needed to get people back on their feet.  And this, like Katrina is going to be a multi-year financial nightmare.
My family in Northwest Arkansas, much like families hit by Katrina and now the floods and tornadoes of 2008 have one thing in common:  They are hardworking and trying to make ends meet. 
My question for you today:  What can you change today to make a difference?  Let me hear from you…agree to disagree, but get in the game while we have a game to play.

Check this out:   http://flipvideospotlight.com/

Flip, makers of the neat little cameras tailored for online video sharing, has a great program in which they've committed to donating one million cameras to non-profit organizations  [501(c)(3)] who want to share their stories on the Web.

From their  Frequently asked questions :     What is a Flip Video Spotlight Kit?
Each Spotlight Kit contains two 60 minute Flip Video Ultra camcorders with built-in video editing and publishing software, detailed instructions for easily uploading video to your own website or popular video sharing sites (like YouTube, MySpace, and AOL Video), tutorials, and other training materials.

YOU should apply for this kit!!!

Thanks to David Neff at FI Space (another site you should put on your RSS feed) for making us aware of this through Twitter.

6-18 Update:  I bought one of the Flip Ultras yesterday. Cool little piece of gear  Fits in your pocket. Couldn't be easier to upload stuff.  Took it to a concert last night and on two plant tours today.  It's been a while since I've had so much fun with a (non-musical) gadget.  We'll have four or five working at Tyson's RAGBRAI  hunger relief fundraising events in late July.  Stay tuned here for the results.   Meanwhile, if you happen to start uploading video about hunger relief stuff, let us know about it, and we'll link to it from here.      Ed

Chis Brogan has an amazingly good post here, 100 Personal Branding Tactics Using Social Media.  The thing is, it's great advice for organizations, too. 

Follow this guy.  He's really, really good, and knows  his stuff on this social media business. 

Subscribe to his RSS feed (notice how easy he makes it on his site). 

Sign up  forTwitter and follow him.

Notice how he builds community (he has a signficant and ever-growing following) by adding value.  He promotes himself (quite well), but he does so by continually providing advice you just can't live without if you're trying to learn about new media.

Thanks to web strategist Jeremiah Owyang for this post on the way the American Red Cross is using social media to create awareness of the effects of central U.S. floods and tornadoes. 

Be sure to hit his links to their site.

They're using Twitter in an innovative way, too.

Jeremiah also points to this site, put together by United Way of Central Iowa, which aggregates social media content related to the flood in that area.

Hunger relief orgs, take notice.  There are some excellent best practices here!  Time to get on the bus.

Summertime's no picnic for hunger-relief groups (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Phillies, Citizens Bank fight hunger

Decatur Mom Pinching Pennies on Groceries

Tickets go on sale for NY wine and food festival to benefit hunger relief

Chefs in Shorts to benefit Great Boston Food Bank

1.5 More People on Food Stamps in March 2007 than in March 2008 (FRAC)

Here are a few online items that might be of interest to the hunger community:

Sen. Cornyn visits [Houston] Food Bank, talks on rising food costs

Food Deserts

Another great post from Food for Thought

Growing in Seattle:  Food aid from the home front

Illinois Pork Producers Help Feed the Hungry

National Food Pantries Starving for Donations

Suburbs see big jump in food stamp use

By Ed Nicholson

Susan Adcock at  Second Harvest of Middle Tennessee  has created an excellent photoblog, Food for Thought, which aims to show the faces of hunger. Their description of the site:

"This project was born of the desire to educate the public about hunger and the way it presents itself in the United States today. Too often it arrives at the party disguised as your neighbor, or your Aunt Dorothy..."

Please visit this site and bookmark it, or add it to your RSS feed.  It has some very compelling images. Looking forward to more.

If there are any others using social media to create community and awareness around the issue of hunger, let me know, and I'll do my best to point people in your direction. 

Tyson has announced the winners of four Hunger All-Star of the Month Awards:

• Ana Rose Heiben, nominated by the Northern Illinois Food Bank.
• Bill and Bob Boyer, nominated by the West Ohio Food Bank. 
• Ann Baumgardner, nominated by Inter-Faith Food Shuttle in Raleigh, North Carolina. 
• Charlotte Stengel, nominated by the Regional Food Bank of Northeastern New York.  

Each of the winners will be honored with a ceremony at their local America's Second Harvest Food Bank, and a truckload of Tyson Foods products will be donated on their behalf to the food bank.

The Tyson Foods Hunger All-Star program was created to recognize those who go beyond the call of duty in their communities in the fight against hunger.