The Albertsons Companies Foundation and the Entertainment Industry Foundation (EIF) announced today their 2017 in-store, month-long campaign raised more than $5 million in donations for Hunger Is, a joint charitable initiative designed to raise awareness and funds to end childhood hunger in America.
These funds, collected from September 15 through October 15, bring the total raised since the 2014 inception of Hunger Is to more than $20 million to support hunger relief programs throughout the country.
This year’s “Hungry for More” campaign highlighted the importance of daily breakfast for children. With the money raised, Hunger Is will meet its goal of providing five million breakfasts this year to children in need, thanks to the generosity of customers at Albertsons Companies’ Albertsons, Safeway, Vons, Jewel-Osco, Shaw’s, ACME Markets, Tom Thumb, Randalls, United Supermarkets, Pavilions, Star Market, Carrs and other stores.
Coinciding with this year’s “Hungry for More” campaign was the “$30K in 30 Days Project,” an initiative that granted an additional $30,000 to organizations helping to eradicate hunger in their communities by sharing compelling stories via social media. Each day of the in-store campaign, the Hunger Is team selected a participating organization and granted it $1,000 to support its respective programs. Winning organizations’ stories were shared on Hunger Is social media channels to raise awareness about the importance of ending childhood hunger in America. This campaign generated significant engagement for both customers and grantees during the month-long challenge. Approximately 450 customers shared over 775 posts about the campaign, and nearly 100 of the organizations who benefited from the initiative shared a total of 361 posts. Overall, the “$30K in 30 Days Project” reached over 4.8 million people and garnered more than 15 million impressions.
Hunger Is Ambassador Viola Davis continues to publicly share her compelling personal story about growing up hungry and lend her voice to the initiative’s public service announcements that run on television, radio, print, out-of-home and digital media outlets.
“The continued success of this program is not only exciting but it’s a sign of the strength our communities possess to bring about positive change. Too many children go without breakfast in this country, and it’s all of our duty to work toward fixing that problem,” Davis said. “I’m honored to lend my voice to this important conversation. My gratitude goes out to everyone who continues to donate and help spread awareness of childhood hunger in America.”
According to the USDA, one in six children in America struggles with hunger, a statistic that has seen improvement in the last year, thanks in part to Hunger Is and other organizations that are working to address the issue. This important marker of progress underscores the need to continue to work toward eradicating childhood hunger in the U.S.
“Every child needs and deserves a good, healthy start to the day,” said Christy Duncan Anderson, Executive Director of the Albertsons Companies Foundation. “We are committed to meeting that need and are thankful that customers, communities and partners like EIF and Viola Davis are standing with us to make it happen.”
“It is so inspiring to see the powerful impact that communities have continued to make in fighting childhood hunger,” said Entertainment Industry Foundation Board Chair Chris Silbermann. “We are so grateful to the Albertsons Companies Foundation and Viola Davis, who remain committed to helping ensure that all children in this country are able to get the nutrition they need to reach their full potential.”
Since its inception, Hunger Is has awarded grants to more than 270 programs addressing childhood hunger. This fall, Hunger Is will invite regional and community-based programs in Albertsons Companies’ operating areas across the U.S. to submit grant proposals. Grants will be awarded to programs that have potential to alleviate childhood hunger.
Albertsons Companies’ store divisions help select grant recipients in their region, in collaboration with the Hunger Is Advisory Committee. Members of the committee are leaders from the most-respected hunger advocacy organizations in the U.S., including the Center for Hunger Free Communities (Drexel University), a community-engaged research, service, advocacy and policy center; Feeding America, the nation’s leading domestic hunger-relief charity; Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Institute, an internationally renowned biomedical research institute focused on pediatric health; the Food Research & Action Center (FRAC), the leading national nonprofit organization working to improve public policies and public-private partnerships to eradicate hunger and malnutrition in the U.S.; Hunger Free America, which operates the national hunger hotline and sponsors the nationwide Anti-Hunger and Opportunity Corps AmeriCorps VISTA program in 32 states; Share Our Strength, whose No Kid Hungry campaign connects kids in need with nutritious food and teaches their families how to cook healthy, affordable meals; and WhyHunger, which supports grassroots solutions to end hunger and poverty by connecting people to nutritious and affordable food, and building the movement for food justice.
More information about the issue and ways for individuals to donate is available at HungerIs.org.
