According to Feeding America, the food insecurity rate in Mississippi is 22 percent, 19.9 percent in Arkansas, and 17.2 percent in Texas, all well above the national average of 14.3 percent. Food insecurity is a national issue.
No matter where you live in the United States, there are seniors, adults, and children going hungry or worrying about where their next meal is coming from.
Oklahoma, Ohio, Kentucky, and Louisiana, are also statistically above the national average for food insecurity. It’s not that there isn’t enough food to feed everyone, nor is it directly related to people who live in poverty.
It could be your neighbor who only made enough to pay his or her mortgage and doesn’t have enough money to buy many groceries.
How you and your company can take action
One great organization which works with relocation companies to collect food items is Move For Hunger, a 501(c)3 non-profit. Move For Hunger works with moving companies in the United States and Canada to collect the non-perishable food which individuals may simply throw away because they don’t want to pack it during their move. They’ve delivered more than 5 million meals through their year-round process.
Move For Hunger has a crew which packs up the unopened food and delivers to a local food pantry. Homeowners don’t do anything except set the food aside.
Move For Hunger + Realtors = a huge impact
Move for Hunger has partnered with realtors across the nation to get the word out. Many times, food banks are stressed in the summer because kids are out of school and not getting breakfast and lunch every day in the classroom. Summer is a prime time for moving, which makes what Move For Hunger does even more important to the community. They have some amazing stories about what individual companies have done in their own backyard on the Move For Hunger blog.
During the holidays, everyone is making contributions to food banks. Make your team’s New Year’s Resolution to get behind a worthwhile organization like Move For Hunger. For realtors, partnering with Move For Hunger not only benefits your community, it also is a great way to get some publicity. Start a food drive within your business (here’s exactly how). Don’t let food go to waste.
As Blake Mycoskie, Toms Shoes founder once said, “Anyone can make a difference, so you don’t have to have it be some huge, global campaign… you can start small, and that’s just as important.”
#MoveForHunger
