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Food Stamps are Sole Income for Close to 6 Million AmericansNew York Times Article Details Skyrocketing Number Of Recipients With No Cash Aid Frequent readers of the STOP Hunger eZine are familiar with our coverage of the critical safety net provided to low-income Americans by the Food Stamp program, now called Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program or SNAP. An eye-opening front page article in the New York Times on January 3, 2010 brought to light just how essential SNAP food benefits have become to a surprisingly large sub-group of recipients—the close to six million Americans for whom food stamps is their only source of income. In the past two years, the number of unemployed workers who receive food stamps but have no cash aid has doubled. “No welfare, no unemployment insurance, and no pensions, child support or disability pay,” according to the Times. Some members of this overlooked group have plummeted from the ranks of the well to do. The Times cites former real estate broker Isabel Bermduez, who “…went from making $180,000 to relying on food stamps. Without that government program, I wouldn’t be able to feed my children.” A former minor league ballplayer, sidetracked by drugs and prison, “sleeps at a rescue mission…and counts $200 in food stamps as his only secure support.” While members of this new sub-group span all ages, backgrounds, and ethnicity, they are united in their monthly battle to survive on SNAP food benefits while struggling to find and fund housing, fuel, clothing, and life’s other daily necessities. Help STOP Hunger On Earth Day’s 40th Anniversary
If you live near Ithaca, New York, The Paleontological Research Institution’s Museum of the Earth, has planned a variety of activities. Events funded by a national supermarket chain include learning how to reduce your ecological footprint to help end world hunger and presentations from local organizations Roots & Shoots and Dilmun Hill Student Farm, Cornell University’s student-run organic farm. A fun program that both raises awareness of hunger and feeds hungry people is The Hunger Site’s "Make Every Day Earth Day" Recycled T-Shirt. This inventive garment incorporates fiber made from recycled plastics (five 20 oz. bottles in every shirt!) along with recycled cotton. The Hunger Site will fund 50 cups of food for every "Make Every Day Earth Day" Recycled T-Shirt purchased for $24.95. Children can attend the Earth Day Celebration at the Tautphaus Park and Zoo, sponsored by the Eastern Idaho Environmental Education Association, for free when their parents contribute a can of food to The Idaho Foodbank. And of course, Sodexo teams around the country are planning their own ways of linking Earth Day with hunger relief efforts. In Georgia, Blazer Dining, operated by Sodexo Campus Services at Valdosta State University, will volunteer to serve more than 150 people at the Valdosta Soup Kitchen on Earth Day, in their continued support to help stop hunger. For more ideas and tools to create hunger-related Earth Day events, the official website for the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day offers The Green Generation™Organizer's Guide | Earth Day In A Box. Or even better, create your own hunger relief project for Earth Day and let the Sodexo Foundation know what you came up with. Email us at STOPHunger@SodexoFoundation.org and we’ll cover the events in our June eZine. April is Sodexo Servathon MonthMake This The Year You Join The Thousands Of Dedicated Sodexo Participants
The Sodexo Servathon’s success is a direct result of the generosity of Sodexo employees who donate their time, energy, skill, and ideas to help fight the root causes of hunger. The following “4 Steps to a Successful Servathon” provide a simple road map to making a difference on your community this April.
Help make the April 2010 Sodexo Servathon the most dynamic and successful one yet. Print and post the Sodexo Servathon flyers (Flyer 1 | Flyer 2) to help spread the word about Sodexo Servathon. Food Hardship Crosses All State Lines: FRAC Report Details Geography of HungerA recent report from the Food Research Action Center (FRAC) shines a penetrating light on the extent of food hardship—defined as lack of money to buy food that families need—in every corner of the nation. FRAC analyzed data from the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index project, breaking it down nationally and by state, Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs,) and congressional district. Key findings, as outlined in the FRAC Food Hardship Report reveal:
While southern states such as Mississippi, Alabama, and North Carolina have long grappled with hunger and poverty, the presence of such popular tourist destinations as Orlando and Miami, FL and Las Vegas, Nevada confirms that food hardship knows no state boundaries.
Survey Methodology Sodexo’s Work in Three Hard-Hit CitiesIn all of the Metropolitan Statistical Areas with high rates of food hardship, community organizations, food banks, and businesses continue their fight against hunger. In three of the hardest-hit urban areas, Sodexo has partnered with clients, volunteer groups, and food banks to do its part. In Orlando, Sodexo’s regional office in Kissimmee holds two food drives each year and its employees volunteer for Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida. Sodexo also helped establish a surplus food donation program to support the Food Bank. Through Sodexo's Feeding Our Future program, we support the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma (Oklahoma City) with its Summer Backpack Food Program, also known as Food 4 Kids. Since 2005, Sodexo’s funding has provided nearly 91,000 summer lunches. Sodexo’s roots in New Orleans date back many years, well before Hurricane Katrina devastated the poorest parts of the city. The Foundation has financially supported the Second Harvest Food Bank of Greater New Orleans and Acadiana for many years and Sodexo employees are regular volunteers. Sodexo also hosted a Campus Kitchen at Dillard University from 2002 until September 2005, when Katrina ravaged the campus. Following Katrina, the Sodexo Foundation enhanced its financial support of the Second Harvest Food Bank, including a $50,000 grant in three months after the hurricane, and Sodexo and its clients provided thousands of hot meals for distribution at Second Harvest. Sodexo volunteers continue to lend a hand at the Food Bank and Healthcare District Manager Jason King is an active Food Bank supporter and leverages the Sodexo Metropolitan Business Group—a networking group of area Sodexo employees—to support hunger initiatives in the area. Article ArchivesSTOP Hunger eZine Issues Vol. 5 Issue 1: STOP Hunger eZine - March 2010 Special Edition: Don't Miss a Scholarship Opportunity Vol. 4 Issue 3: STOP Hunger eZine - October 2009 Vol. 4 Issue 2: STOP Hunger eZine - July 2009 Vol. 4 Issue 1: STOP Hunger eZine - March 2009 Special Edition: $5,000 scholarships for community service Vol. 3 Issue 6: STOP Hunger eZine - November 2008
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March 2010 – Volume 5/Issue 1
In this issue: Sodexo and Community Kitchen: Job Creation in a Time of Need
Since the start of the “Great Recession” in December 2007, the U.S. economy has shed 8.4 million jobs. That's the most jobs lost in any recession, as a percent of total employment, since the Great Depression. While finding work is challenging for anyone in this economy, it is particularly difficult for unskilled workers or those emerging from homelessness or substance abuse. One indispensable option for such individuals is Feeding America’s (formerly America’s Second Harvest) Community Kitchen ® program. Community Kitchen programs across the country train unemployed people in food rescue and meal preparation. With this training, they create meals that are served to people in need. Sodexo not only supports and funds individual Community Kitchen programs with grants, but we also hire many of the program's qualified graduates. One such successful graduate is Janet, who joined the Food Bank of Delaware’s Community Kitchen program in February 2008. Food Bank CEO Patricia Beebe shared her story with the Sodexo Foundation: "Janet successfully completed her internship at the Wilmington Hospital, and was offered a position, solely responsible for their coffee kiosk. Within six months, she was promoted to grill cook. She is still employed with Sodexo, and living in her own apartment. Janet is very proud of herself and thankful for the opportunity." Janice Swiencki, Sodexo’s District Manager for Wilmington Hospital, echoes Beebe’s praise. “Food service was all new to Janet. She had to learn how to make an espresso drink, work a cash register, and now how to work a busy grill. Her positive attitude and desire to improve her personal situation permeates through to everyone she interacts with. Janet is a real gem.” Janet is not the only Community Kitchen success story. Swiencki notes, “Sodexo has hired four other Food Bank of Delaware’s Community Kitchen graduates. Across our area accounts, we accept 18 student interns and have hired six students annually for the last few years.” |
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Before there was an Environmental Protection Agency, the threat of global warming, or carbon footprint tracking, there was the very first 
One of the most visible annual efforts to fulfill Sodexo and the Sodexo Foundation’s mission to end hunger in the U.S. is the 