Tony and Dolly Ellis

Here's a powerful, very short video produced for Share Our Strength by  iStrategyLabs.
There are 12.4 million children at risk of hunger in America. Learn how you can help at http://strength.org/numbers
Art direction/design/story: Zach Goodwin.
Animation: Brock Boyts.
Music: Project ULTRA (Richard Thies & Nick Ross).

Last December, some of us at Tyson had the distinct pleasure of hearing a message from Dr. Jeffrey Sachs, founder of Millennium Promise and the author of The End of Poverty. 
Dr. Sachs's work has taken him across the globe, into some of the most impoverished, politically and economically unstable countries in the world. 
As I'm watching the developments in Iraq unfold, and listening to news about North Korea, Pakistan, and other politically unstable parts of the world, I'm reminded that our conversations about hunger in the U.S., as critical as they are, need to be placed in the context of a much larger conversation about how ending hunger in our world is vital to the future of the planet. 
I believe Dr. Sachs articulates it very well in the clip above:  
Sustainability requires that we address these challenges also... These hungry places are politically the most unstable parts of the planet....  Where you have hunger, you have governments that fail, you have terrorism, you have unemployed, dispossessed youth, you have chances of global conflicts, civil violence, gangs and disorder.
You can't stabilize a hungry place.  Troops can never do it. 

It's a crime that in the richest country in the world, all our children are not fed.  But on a bigger stage, it's more important than ever before that all  the children in the world are fed.
How do we rationalize the debate to include solutions for both domestic and global hunger? Do limited resources make their solutions mutually exclusive? 

 

 

 

By Ed Nicholson

At Tyson, we get frequent requests for food donations from organizations claiming to be "food banks." Upon further query it often turns out that many of the groups--as worthy as their efforts are--are not food banks. There exists some confusion over the use of the term that needs to be cleared up.
A food bank is a non-profit organization that warehouses and distributes food to a network of local agencies, who in turn distribute to individuals in need.
Food banks receive food and other resources from a number of different sources, including food producers, grocery stores, individual donors and organizational food drives. Many food banks are also official distributors for USDA and FEMA government emergency food programs.
Food banks typically have a network of non-profit organizations to which they distribute, which can include food pantries, feeding sites, and shelters. Quite often, this is where the confusion arises. Food pantries are not "food banks" (even though some food banks operate food pantries and mobile food distribution systems).
The agencies are where the rubber meets the road. They distribute the food to families and individuals in need.
Tyson Foods is a proud supporter of the Feeding America Network, which includes more than 200 member food banks, serves every county in the U.S., and distributes more than 2 billion pounds of food relief each year.  95% of the food Tyson donates goes to Feeding America food banks. There are some very compelling, specific reasons our company chooses to partner with Feeding America. I'll get into those in a later post.
The U.S., due in large part to the effectiveness of the Feeding America and its network of food banks has the most efficient emergency food distribution system in the world.
 

 

By Ed Nicholson

So I've got this idea.
I've been reading  Here Comes Everybody  by Clay Shirky, and he's describing how Linus Torvalds envisioned Linux as a a community-developed operating system, using an open-source model.  A collaboration of bright minds and refined skills. Obviously, it was a great vision.
And I'm thinking: Wonder if we could do an "open-source" food donation. Commit a certain amount of food and let the community decide how it should be donated.
Here's what I'm thinking. Tell me if you think it would work: 

Tyson Foods would commit a truckload of Tyson products (35,000 pounds), to be donated to a Feeding America member food bank. (you can find out which one the 200 food banks serves your area by going here).  You tell us how it should be donated. 

Here are the only requirements:

• It has to generate awareness. Either for the issue of hunger, or for the people and organizations invovled every day in the fight against hunger.   
• It has to go to a Feeding America food bank.
   

Here are factors that would  be strongly considered:

• Engagement.  Will it compel people to actually do something?
• Creation of community.  Does it provide a means by which people will continue to stay engaged.
• Creative use of social networking tools.
   

Here's what it wouldn't need to do:

• Sell Tyson products.  Honestly.  This wouldn't be a cause related marketing effort (not that there's anything wrong with that). We're sincerely trying to enage as many people as possible in the issue of hunger, and we don't want to put anyone off by making them feel as though we're "using" them to sell products.
• Require a financial commitment to execute (I only have chicken to work with). 

So there you go.  What do you think?  Would people participate? 

photo by  James Cridland, Creative Commons, Flickr  
 

By Ed Nicholson

 

Austin athletes unload a truckload of food to agencies of CAFB

One of the most fulfilling things about being involved in hunger relief is the opportunity to work with some fantastic partners.  We've talked a lot about our friends at  Share Our Strength and Feeding America. 
But one group that doesn't get mentioned as much is Lift Up America.  Founded in 2004, by the visionary Dave Hannah and other business leaders, Lift Up America is a coalition of influential business and sports leaders, brought together by a common goal of addressing some of society's most pressing challenges. 
In 2005, Tyson Foods began our partnership with them with food donations in cooperation with the Kansas City Chiefs and the Miami Dolphins.
Each year since then, a growing number of professional and college athletic teams have lent their support and their players' time to events in which food is donated to their local communities, but more important, awareness for the issue of hunger is elevated.  Last year, we did donations in fourteen cities across the country.
The people who comprise Lift Up America have solved some tremendous business challenges.  Very successfully. They've competed at the highest levels on the field and off.  It's a tribute to them that they are now applying their strategic skills to challenges our world faces.  
Last week, I had the privelege of being in Austin, joining a burgeoning local chapter of Lift Up America, led by highly-successful businessman, Michael Cress, in making a donation to the Capital Area Food Bank of Texas (another fabulous partner). We were joined at Southpark Meadows, who generously supplied the venue,  by members of the Austin Toros and the Austin Aztex, along with notable athletes, such as former UT football standout Will Matthews and KC Chiefs linebacker, Derrick Johnson. 
CAFB CEO, David Davenport said it well.  "Addressing hunger is a community challenge."
Thanks to Lift Up America for bringing the Austin community together for this event. 

 More photos of this event can be seen here.