Tyson Foods Hunger Relief

Big Hearts, Big Minds Come Together to Discuss Hunger Solutions

Wed, 17 Mar 2010 12:04:43 GMT

Participants in the WeCanEndThis Cause Lab

By Ed Nicholson
On Monday, I had the privilege of sitting in on the first WeCanEndThis Cause Lab, a day-long think tank at the annual South by Southwest Interactive Festival in Austin, focused on arriving at new solutions to the problem of hunger in the U.S. Big vision guy, Scott Henderson conceived the event, and assembled it with with CauseShift partners Anne Bertelsen and Brian Reich, along with an all-star cast of non-profit and corporate partners (full-disclosure: Tyson Foods was a partner).

Altogether, the event drew a couple hundred participants throughout the day: a diverse bunch that included not only professional hunger fighters, but social good advocates from outside the cause, and socially-minded techsters. A full overview of who, what and how can be found at WeCanEndThis.com so I won't go into detail here. Go check it out; it was a very interesting day.

Here's why I think the event was a worthwhile investment of all of the participants' time and resources:

If hunger is to be "solved," (and I think all of us in the game hold great hope that's something that can occur), it won't happen because one organization makes it happen. And it won't happen if all of us keep a singleminded focus on our own organizational objectives (as worthy as they might be). It's going to take a collaborative effort among every single person and group now out there working on the cause. It's going to take competitors working together. That happened here, with Share Our Strength and Feeding America coming to the table, as well as Tyson and ConAgra, and others in the consulting, tech and social services sectors who might otherwise compete for resources or share of mind. I think a lot of smart people have come to that realization, and you're beginning to see more collaboration than ever before.
The solution (or more likely, solutions) to hunger won't come solely from those currently leading the fight. It's going to take more people; intelligent, innovative people; people totally unencumbered by a "been there, done that, won't work" mindset. It's going to take more and more people who, in studying the problem, arrive at the gut check that hunger is in every community, and in some way, affects every single one of us. In this one place, on this one day, I hope there were some new converts, who will stay involved as WeCanEndThis embarks upon the rest of a year-long noble experiment.

The Youngest Tyson Hunger All-Star Yet

Wed, 17 Mar 2010 12:32:15 GMT

When we got involved in hunger ten years ago, we began hearing some incredible stories. The most unlikely people in the most unlikely places doing tremendous work on the frontlines of fighting hunger.
That's why when we put this blog up in 2007, we made a place for people to tell those stories themselves in the Hunger All-Star section.
This week, we honor one of most unlikely Hunger All-Stars yet. 5-year oldPhoebe Russell, from San Francisco, after seeing a homeless man begging for food, decided she would raise $1000 by collecting cans to donate so people wouldn't have to go hungry. She didn't even know what $1000 was, but started calling relatives to help her out.
The phenomenal thing: Phoebe's efforts raised more than $3700!!!
Her story came to our attention via Toan Lam, who created the video above.
We're proud to present a truckload of food in her honor to the San Francisco Food Bank.
Keep it up, Phoebe!!! With you leading a future generation, we know there's hope for an end to hunger.

High School Heroes

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 13:59:19 GMT

By Ed Nicholson

Last fall, Tongal.com and Tyson Foods announced a collaborative effort to raise awareness for hunger relief in America through a video contest. Thanks to Lorraine Arromando’s video highlighting Cheverus High School’s annual Thanksgiving food drive, Tyson Foods donated more than 35,000 pounds of chicken to the Good Shepherd Food-Bank this morning. This is the first of the five winning videos that will receive Tyson donations to their local Feeding America food banks. We'll be featuring the other videos as we make food donations in their areas.

I know there's a lot of concern about the fact that volunteer corps are aging; some wonder as to whether the next generation of hunger fighters will step up.

Here's something to give you hope.

"Jeans Days" and the concept of indulgences

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 11:27:09 GMT

By Ed Nicholson

Today's a "Jeans Day" at Tyson Foods Corporate HQ. For five bucks, we can violate the company's dress code sans guilt, and wear denim. The money goes to a good cause. A couple times a year it's hunger relief; today it's the local chapter of Big Brothers, Big Sisters. It's really quite astonishing how much money is raised so we can have this pecadillo absolved.

It's a device that goes back to the Middle Ages, when the indulgences helped build a lot of really nice buildings in Europe. All for a good cause, of course. Maybe except for the fact it was easier for rich people to afford the ticket out of Purgatory...

People will pay a lot to sin. Might be difficult for governements to provide schools and roads without alcohol, tobacco and gambling taxes.

I read last week of a library in Pflugerville, Texas that was forgiving fines for a donation of food to local food pantries. That seems like a good concept.

One of our departments has a "cuss jar," during the United Way drive, into which offenders throw a quarter if a bit of profanity slips (or is thrown) out.

How else have you seen the concept of indulgence for charity work?

We Can End This

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 09:22:44 GMT

Today, Tyson Foods joins a great cast of partners in the launch of WeCanEndThis.com, a yearlong initiative to spark innovation and a broader engagement in the movement to end hunger in America. Please go to WeCanEndThis.com to learn more about this bold effort.

While you're there, you can take the first step to secure a truckload of food to be donated into your state from Tyson Foods. When you promise to help end hunger, we will give you a digital can of food to donate to the state of your choice. On March 18 at 5pm ET, we will tally the digital cans and the top ten states will each win a truckload of Tyson Products to be donated to a Feeding America Food Bank in their state in the next few months.

15 days. 1.5 million meals. 10 states. Be a part of it.

Feel free to share this link to help spread the word http://bit.ly/tysblg

You'll be hearing more in the weeks and months to come. We'd like to know what you think about this.

Food insecurity in an insecure world

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 07:55:13 GMT

By Andrea Sherwood

Does food insecurity impact peace and war or the choices children face? Share your thoughts. Let’s have a discussion as uncomfortable as it will be as we sip on our coffee, tea, soda or beverage of choice while we blog and “engage” from a distance.

After reading, Ishmael Beah’s, A Long Way: Gone Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, my answers to the questions have not changed. They remain a definite “yes.” However, I now hold specific images in my mind as to how food insecurity impacts individuals, communities and the world. This book has forever changed me and the emotions that are stirred within as think about, discuss with others and engaged in solutions to the food crisis in the world and world peace.

Regardless, of how you answered the previous questions, I believe this is a must read book! Ishmael shares his journey as a young child becoming a soldier and then his journey of rehabilitation back into civilian life by age 18. Discover what food means to a boy solider. Learn about Ishmael’s amazing journey of rehabilitation and how he almost looses it all because of a quest for food. This is a book that is hard to put down, yet hard to keep reading because of the reality that unfolds before your eyes. Let me know what you think.

Do you value your true assets?

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 13:19:33 GMT

By Susan Brockway

New numbers have just been released and as expected, the number of people lacking food continues to grow. At the food bank for which I'm board president, we look at each and every dollar closely and wonder what to do to make it stretch.
Volunteers obviously are essential to helping meeting growing need. Each volunteer hour represents dollars in offset labor costs. Most food banks simply would not be in business were it not for the tireless efforts of their volunteers.
Here's a way you can honor your best volunteers: Nominate them as a Tyson Hunger All-Star. They'll be recognized on this site, and each month we select one volunteer whose local Feeding America food bank will receive a truckload of Tyson products in his or her name.
So take a little time and honor your volunteers for the assets they truly are.

Interview with a food pantry director

Tue, 16 Feb 2010 08:13:25 GMT

We recently ran into Jack McConnell, who helps run the food pantry at the First Christian Church, Disciples of Christ. His agency was among the fifty receiving food at the University of Arkansas/Tyson/Lift Up America event in late January.

Jack's agency served more than 10,000 people last year. Here he discusses how the need has recently grown.

Food banks--Putting your agencies on the map

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 09:18:25 GMT

View Tyson Foods Hunger Relief Donations in a larger map

Here's a Google map I created on Friday of the truckload donations Tyson has done in the past year. Notice all of the icons are clickable for more information. You can zoom in to the street address (with apologies to those recipients whose addresses I didn't nail precisely--I did this all in one day). We plan on keeping it updated, so it will be an archive of what we're doing (just wish it had been around ten years ago).

Creating it got me thinking: Food banks could use this free tool to plot all of their agencies, along with their relevant information. Notice above that Goodgle supplies you with some embeddable code, so you can put it on your blog or website. You can set it with any number of collaborators (including a wide-open wiki style), so conceivably agencies could enter and edit their own information.

Getting started is easy, and begins with setting up a Google account.

Imagine if all of the food banks did this, then the maps were aggregated; if the world could see all 63,000 agencies in one view, then zoom into the ones working in their state, community and neighborhood. That might be kinda cool.

Good news

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 19:06:00 GMT

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.

Hunger Twitterers

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 15:22:59 GMT

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
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/SFFoodBank 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.com/EndChildHunger 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
http://twitter.com/AJoyFULLHoliday A Joyfull Holiday
http://twitter.com/dipaolamomma Lara DiPaola
http://twitter.com/1millionmeals Jeffrey Strain, Penny Experiment
http://twitter.com/SecondHarvestOH Second Harvest Ohio
http://twitter.com/GleanersFBIndy Gleaners Food Bank, Indianapolis
http://twitter.com/FoodDepository Chicago Food Depository
http://twitter.com/foodhunger The Volunteer Way
http://twitter.com/semofoodbank Southeast Missouri Food Bank
http://twitter.com/Harvest4Hunger Harvest for Hunger
http://twitter.com/pghfoodbank Pittsburgh Food Bank
http://twitter.com/breadjennifer Jennifer Stapleton, Bread for the World
http://twitter.com/bread4theworld Bread for the World
http://twitter.com/secondharvestoh Second Harvest Ohio
http://twitter.com/CentralILFoodbk Central IL Foodbank
http://twitter.com/CCSTB Community Center of St. Bernard
http://twitter.com/thelastshow The Last Show--Karen
http://twitter.com/nwncfoodbank Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwest North Carolina
http://twitter.com/CFBFresno Community Food Bank, Fresno, CA

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

Hunger Organizations with Facebook Presence

Mon, 25 Jan 2010 12:02:17 GMT

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

Making some great plays off the field

Mon, 25 Jan 2010 10:37:15 GMT

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.

Plaque Attack

Fri, 22 Jan 2010 09:16:16 GMT

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.

A Souper Reason to Get Involved in Hunger--Feeding Folks in Austin

Tue, 12 Jan 2010 17:41:39 GMT

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.