As I mentioned last week, I am proud to be able to help extend the good work that the ConAgra Foods Foundation and Feeding America are doing to help fight child hunger in America.
I cannot repeat this statistic enough: One in four children in America does not know where their next meal is coming from.
1 in 4 children.
I have known that statistic for awhile. The hard part is knowing that isn't an improvement. When talking to Feeding America representatives last week, I learned that it used to be one in six.
So to help raise awareness and funds and make a difference, the ConAgra Foods partnered with Feeding America and Schools Fight Hunger to kick off a new year of raising funds and awareness for the issue. As a part of that effort, a small group of us traveled to Los Angeles to learn more about their most recent efforts and initiatives.
While there we visited the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank. In many ways, it looked no different than that last time I was there. Except this time I noticed less food.
Maybe it was the day of the week. Maybe it was that one of the thousands of trucks had just left. Or maybe not. Maybe it was just a fluke. I hope so. I fear not. I don't know.
What I do know is that we then spent the next hour digging into thousands of pounds of tomatoes to sort them for local shelters and, ultimately, local residents.
We picked and sorted.
Kept the ones we would eat and tossed the ones we wouldn't.
It became a challenge, of sorts.
This very real challenge. Sorting 7,000 pounds of produce. Knowing very real people would be eating them soon.
But we made it, as much as we could, fun. It started when I found a tomato that looked surprisingly like a happy face.
How very fitting.
In the midst of what what we were doing. Trying to do what we can. Corporations and nonprofits and individuals. Trying to make a difference. In the very real face of a horrible issue.
To find a smiling face.
We kept looking. Amazingly, mine was not the only one.
But it can be fixed by you and I caring. By you and I doing. By clipping labels from participating ConAgra brands. By getting our local schools involved in Schools Fight Hunger. By doing what we can.
Will you join us?
*ConAgra Foods covered the cost of my trip and provided compensation to cover additional costs I incur throughout my participation in this program. As those of you who follow along here know, I only partner with causes that I truly believe in and am passionate about. This is one.
**And yes, as those of you that follow me on Twitter of Facebook know, there was a celebrity kickoff rally at the end of this trip. So to see who came (yes, including Mark Salling from Glee!) and help me identify the ones I was too old or un-cool to know, come on over to Facebook.
