Feeding America Seeks End-of-the-Year Donations

Cites Significant Need, Enormous Challenges in Year Ahead

CHICAGO, Dec. 27, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- With only a few days left on the calendar, Feeding America is seeking end-of-the-year donations to help their efforts securing food for people living at-risk of hunger. Feeding America provides meals to nearly six million low-income Americans every week.

The need is especially urgent, as food stamp benefits have been cut by $5 billion for fiscal year 2014, making it harder for many families to make ends meet. Each year, 1 in 8 Americans seek help from a food pantry, soup kitchen, or shelter served by Feeding America.

"The Feeding America network of food banks faces enormous challenges every day, as we work to rescue and distribute food to millions of people in need. Most of the food acquired by our food banks is donated, but it requires a significant infrastructure and many dollars to transport and store the nearly 4 billion pounds of food we expect to distribute in 2014. Many of our food banks are currently struggling to meet the needs of their communities. Simply put, the more dollars we have, the more food we will be able to give to people who desperately need it," said Bob Aiken, CEO of Feeding America.

With the recent recession, more families and individuals are struggling with food insecurity. High and sustained unemployment and underemployment have caused member food banks to move from helping people during a crisis, to becoming a regular source of food for many struggling people.

The Feeding America network currently serves 37 million people, including 14 million children and nearly 3 million seniors, and distributes more than 3.8 billion pounds of food and grocery products annually.  No other nonprofit organization can match this nationwide and direct service reach to vulnerable low-income people. And with a four-star rating from Charity Navigator and a 98 percent fundraising efficiency rating from Forbes, Feeding America is one of the most efficient charities with donor dollars.

In the fight to end hunger in this country, Feeding America's services span the gamut of:

• Leading and expanding effective nationwide systems for getting food to people in need.
• Running specialized programs targeted to serve vulnerable children and seniors.
• Securing and delivering emergency food assistance.
• Coordinating logistics to buy and move food across the food bank network.
• Raising public awareness of hunger.
• Conducting research to help define the issues of hunger and help find solutions.
• Strengthening outreach and enrollment for government-sponsored food benefits programs.
• Spearheading advocacy efforts to strengthen state and federal government policies; and
• Building capacity for advocacy and community engagement across the network of food banks.

"Every single dollar donated to Feeding America will help us provide nine meals to someone in need," said Aiken. "We hope you can help us with the critical challenges we face in the years to come."  

About Feeding America

Feeding America is a nationwide network of more than 200 food banks that leads the fight against hunger in the United States. Together, we provide food to more than 37 million people through 61,000 food pantries, soup kitchens, and shelters in communities across America. Feeding America also supports programs that improve food security among the people we serve; educates the public about the problem of hunger; and advocates for legislation that protects people from going hungry. Individuals, charities, businesses and government all have a role in ending hunger. Donate. Volunteer. Advocate. Educate.  Together we can solve hunger. Visit http://www.feedingamerica.org/. Find us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/FeedingAmerica or follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/FeedingAmerica.

Contact(s):
Ross Fraser
Feeding America
312.641.6422

SOURCE Feeding America