Because of you, more children will start the school day ready to learn, without the pang of hunger as a distraction. Our Back-to-School campaign reminds us that along with pencils and paper, children need a daily supply of food to take on new concepts, run on playgrounds, and socialize more successfully.
Our Community Health and Agriculture Education teams have collaborated to develop the new Food Shuttle Academy, an online learning platform with free, self-paced lessons on health, nutrition, agriculture, and more!
Our Spring Match challenge, made possible by generous funders, including SOLV Energy and the Mead Family Foundation, exceeded the $105,000 goal, raising an additional $70,000 to erase hunger!
Love, Tito’s has a heart for community gardens and increasing access to fresh, healthy foods. Their philanthropic Love, Tito’s Block to Block program, reconnects neighborhoods and creates community gardens and farms throughout the United States. Our hearts are in full bloom knowing that our Camden Street Garden will be the next beneficiary of Block to Block, allowing neighbors with mobility challenges to access our many activities more easily.
Thanks to a Service Partnership Mini-Grant from the Carolina Center for Public Service at UNC Chapel Hill, FoodCorps member Brett Rapkin-Citrenbaum and I were able to purchase the materials to build a storage bench for the school. The hope is that the storage bench will make it easier for teachers, volunteers, and community members to hold large outdoor classes and cultivate nutritious food
It’s still January, the beginning of a new year, and we’re still thinking about change. While we may make our personal resolutions for self-improvement, issues like hunger require us all to work together toward change, resolved to create a hunger-free community where everyone has enough healthy, nutritious food to eat. For some food for thought, check out these recent and upcoming films exploring the interplay of nutrition, hunger, and the need for change in our food system across the state and across the nation:
This new documentary, produced by our partner Advocates for Health in Action (AHA), follows three North Carolina families as they learn ways to improve their eating habits and become more physically active. Its release coincides with the release of the NC Plan to Address Obesity in early February. The documentary is scheduled to air on Sunday, February 3rd at 1pm on UNC-TV. You can click this link to view the trailer: http://vimeo.com/55640574 and follow the film on their facebook page.
This film has already been released -- it first aired on January 14, 2013 on PBS Independent Lens -- but it’s an important one for exploring the issues of food justice. Check out the trailer here. If you missed it, PBS is streaming the documentary free until February 11th. You can watch it online here: http://video.pbs.org/video/2305721338
Description of this film from PBS Independent Lens:
“In Soul Food Junkies, [film director Byron] Hurt sets out on a historical and culinary journey to learn more about the soul food tradition and its relevance to black cultural identity. Through candid interviews with soul food cooks, historians, and scholars, as well as with doctors, family members, and everyday people, the film puts this culinary tradition under the microscope to examine both its positive and negative consequences. Hurt also explores the socioeconomic conditions in predominantly black neighborhoods, where it can be difficult to find healthy options, and meets some pioneers in the emerging food justice movement who are challenging the food industry, encouraging communities to “go back to the land” by creating sustainable and eco-friendly gardens, advocating for healthier options in local supermarkets, supporting local farmers' markets, avoiding highly processed fast foods, and cooking healthier versions of traditional soul food.”
Coming March 1st, A Place at the Table is a new documentary film about hunger in America. It addresses the need for continued strong funding of federal nutrition programs, like SNAP (food stamps), which help keep millions of American families from going hungry.
Film description from TakePart.com
“Fifty million people in the U.S.—including one in five children—don’t know where their next meal is coming from. Directors Kristi Jacobson and Lori Silverbush examine the issue of hunger in America through the lens of three people struggling with food insecurity: Barbie, a single Philadelphia mother who grew up in poverty and is trying to provide a better life for her two kids; Rosie, a Colorado fifth-grader who often has to depend on friends and neighbors to feed her and has trouble concentrating in school; and Tremonica, a Mississippi second-grader whose asthma and health issues are exacerbated by the largely empty calories her hardworking mother can afford.
Ultimately, A Place at the Table shows us how hunger poses serious economic, social and cultural implications for our nation, and that it could be solved once and for all, if the American public decides – as they have in the past – that making healthy food available and affordable is in the best interest of us all.”
Indeed, hunger exists everywhere across America, including in our own backyards. More than 112,000 children receive free or reduced price lunch in the 7 counties Inter-Faith Food Shuttle serves. What's more, 58 percent of those struggling with hunger across the nation have incomes above the federal poverty level. Find out how you can help locally at www.foodshuttle.org.
