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Dana Delany Rallies Neighbors from Wisteria Lane and beyond to Help End Child Hunger in America’s Communities Child Hunger Ends Here Neighborhood Rally campaign, led by ConAgra Foods in partnership with Feeding America, aims to alleviate child hunger in the United States
Today, there was another dramatic turn on Wisteria Lane – but this time, it was to raise awareness about a real and serious issue facing America’s communities today: childhood hunger.
According to recent research from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, nearly one in four children in the United States doesn’t know where their next meal is coming from. The issue knows no boundaries, which is why Dana Delany, one of the stars of ABC’s hit series “Desperate Housewives,” used the set of this iconic neighborhood as the backdrop to help promote the Child Hunger Ends Here Neighborhood Rally campaign, a new initiative led by ConAgra Foods(R) (NYSE:CAG), in partnership with Feeding America, the nation’s leading hunger-relief organization. The campaign seeks to draw attention and support for an issue that affects children throughout the United States, in neighborhoods that we all call home.
“One of the things I love most about ‘Desperate Housewives’ is that no matter what happens on Wisteria Lane, all of the neighbors always rally together when the need is critical,” said Delany. “And with nearly one in four children facing hunger in our communities and neighborhoods, we have to rally together to help end child hunger, here and now.”
Through the Child Hunger Ends Here Neighborhood Rally campaign, individuals in communities across the nation can help kids at risk of hunger by rallying together to raise money, collect food, purchase products that trigger a donation to Feeding America and raise awareness about the issue among their community. They can turn a bake sale, church rummage sale, food drive, yard sale, school carnival or other community events into a Child Hunger Ends Here Neighborhood Rally simply by donating a portion or all of the proceeds from an event to Feeding America, which has a network of more than 200 food banks across the nation. Donations made online directly at Feeding America’s Child Hunger Ends Here page and food collected locally will stay in local communities.
“We believe the tremendous power of communities coming together can help end child hunger,” said Gary Rodkin, CEO of ConAgra Foods. “No child in the United States should face the risk of attending school, going out to play or going to bed without a nutritious meal. To make sure all children have access to the food they need to lead healthy, active lives, we hope people nationwide come together and host or participate in a Child Hunger Ends Here Neighborhood Rally.”
ConAgra Foods’ Child Hunger Ends Here initiative builds on a long-standing commitment by ConAgra Foods and the ConAgra Foods Foundation to end child hunger, which has resulted in donations of more than $38 million and more than 232 million pounds of food to Feeding America since 1993. The ConAgra Foods Foundation recently committed an additional $10 million to Feeding America over the next five years, which is the largest donation ever made to Feeding America specifically to fight child hunger.
“ConAgra Foods is a longtime, committed partner of Feeding America, and we are incredibly grateful for their dedication in fighting domestic childhood hunger,” said Vicki Escarra, President and CEO of Feeding America. “With nearly one in four children across the nation struggling with hunger, we are in crisis right now. No American, and especially no child, should go hungry, and we thank ConAgra Foods for joining us in that belief and for raising awareness and support for Feeding America in neighborhoods across the country this spring.”
“It’s so difficult to believe that nearly 17 million kids in this country don’t get enough food to live active, healthful lives,” said Delany. “But by rallying our friends and neighbors, and making a stand that child hunger ends here, with us, we can make a difference in these kids’ lives.”
The program’s web site – www.childhungerendshere.com – provides more information about the issue of child hunger and details on the number of ways to get involved:
- Host a rally – work with friends to create a new event or designate an existing like a block party, yard sale, or school bake sale as a Child Hunger Ends Here Neighborhood Rally. Tips, ideas, and more information about how to host a rally can be found at www.childhungerendshere.com. People who register their rally at the site will receive a rally toolkit with posters, a banner, and ConAgra Foods coupons, while supplies last. To date, more than 850 Child Hunger Ends Here House Parties were held throughout the country to rally against child hunger, with more than 10,000 people in attendance. Gatherings ranged from in-home dinner parties to church functions to play dates. An additional 150 rallies will take place over the following weeks – and an additional 300 rallies (with more than 25,000 anticipated attendees) have been registered online.
- Go grocery shopping – From March through May, for every purchase of a participating ConAgra Foods brand, the company will donate one meal to Feeding America – up to 2.5 million meals this year.* Participating brands include Banquet, Chef Boyardee, Healthy Choice, Manwich, Marie Callender’s, Orville Redenbacher’s, and Peter Pan peanut butter.
- Visit the Virtual Rally – Dana Delany and several of her celebrity friends and neighbors donated autographed items for the Child Hunger Ends Here online celebrity rummage sale with Clothes Off Our Back, this online auction will be donated to Feeding America.
- Spread the Word – Individuals can help raise awareness about the issue of childhood hunger by going online to www.childhungerendshere.com. From there, people can link off to our Facebook, Twitter, FlickR, YouTube and other social media channels for campaign updates, to spread the word or to upload photos and videos of their rallies. (To visit these channels directly, go to: facebook.com/ConAgraFoods; twitter.com/ConAgraFoods;
Through the Child Hunger Ends Here Neighborhood Rally Campaign, ConAgra Foods is fighting child hunger in a number of other ways, including:
- Child Hunger Blogger Correspondents – ConAgra Foods is engaging 14 influential bloggers across the country to rally their online and offline communities to join in the fight to help end child hunger. In addition to raising awareness about the issue, these women will host their own local Neighborhood Rallies this spring in their local communities. (For a complete list of the Child Hunger Blogger Correspondents, visit www.facebook.com/conagrafoods.)
- Food Donations – Regularly, ConAgra Foods and its brands donate food directly to Feeding America and its network of food banks. Last week, Marie Callender’s donated more than 330,000 meals to Feeding America food banks across the country. In addition, Peter Pan is donating the equivalent of more than one million meals to fight child hunger in America.
- Employee Involvement – ConAgra Foods employees are rallying around the cause too, with employee events planned for early May at the company headquarters in Omaha and other locations across the country.
* Monetary equivalent of up to 2.5 million meals provided to Feeding America through their network of food banks for purchases made through 5/31/10. Every dollar donated enables seven meals to be provided to Americans in need.
ConAgra Foods, Inc., (NYSE: CAG) is one of North America’s leading food companies, with brands in 96 percent of America’s households. Consumers find Banquet, Chef Boyardee, Egg Beaters, Healthy Choice, Hebrew National, Hunt’s, Marie Callender’s, Orville Redenbacher’s, PAM, Peter Pan, Reddi-wip and many ConAgra Foods brands in grocery, convenience, mass merchandise and club stores. ConAgra Foods also has a strong business-to-business presence, supplying frozen potato and sweet potato products as well as other vegetable, spice and grain products to a variety of well-known restaurants, foodservice operators and commercial customers. For more information, please visit us at www.conagrafoods.com.
Feeding America provides low-income individuals and families with the fuel to survive and even thrive. As the nation’s leading domestic hunger-relief charity, our network members supply food to more than 37 million Americans each year, including 14 million children and 3 million seniors. Serving the entire United States, more than 200 member food banks support 63,000 agencies that address hunger in all of its forms. For more information on how you can fight hunger in your community and across the country, visit www.feedingamerica.org. Find us on Facebook at facebook.com/FeedingAmerica or follow our news on Twitter at twitter.com/FeedingAmerica.
*Post via press release is to facilitate support for the campaign.
