No Kid Hungry – Act Locally

So, have you been wondering what the orange logo is in my sidebar? Or, the orange logo stamped on my Twitter and Facebook profile picture? Today’s post will answer your questions. This month we have been thinking a lot about hunger in our neighbourhood, thanks to the No Kid Hungry campaign and the Mom’s Fighting Hunger group. No Kid Hungry is a campaign to raise awareness and money in the hope that no child will go hungry in the United States. Mom’s Fighting Hunger is a fabulous group of women and bloggers who are supporting this campaign through posts, tweets, activities and actions. So, when I joined this group I knew that I had to turn this into something local, something in my city, in Toronto, Canada.

The truth is that children go hungry all over the world. Food Banks Canada reports that “each month close to 900,000 Canadians are assisted by food banks, and 38% of those are children and youth.” As I  read the stats what I found most alarming were the numbers regarding the supply of food at food banks. “35% of food banks ran out of food during the survey period” and “55% of food banks needed to cut back on the amount of food they provided to each household”. Hunger is an international issue, touching children and families everywhere. What could we do to help?

The colour of the No Kid Hungry campaign is orange, so I made my entire family orange felt bracelets. First, I cut 2 pieces of felt to fit my child’s wrist. Then, I sewed the 2 pieces of felt together. Finally I sewed on a coordinating button and cut a button hole.

These bracelets start a conversation about hunger. Once we had our bracelets we went online to the Daily Bread Food Bank site. We searched out what the most needed items are and made a list (on orange paper of course). We made our trip to the grocery store and started checking items off the list. The girls loved being in charge of the list and crossing things off as we went along.

Once our shopping was done, we dropped the groceries into the food bank donation bin…you can find one in almost every grocery store.

Canadian Thanksgiving is just 2 weeks away and most food banks are in the midst of their Thanksgiving food drives. If you can, please take the time to visit No Kid Hungry and the Moms Fighting Hunger Facebook page. You will be amazed at the fun, kid-friendly activities and ideas that are being shared. Find a way to help end hunger in your neighbourhood. Every can counts.