Category Archives: Hunger 101

Editor’s Note: Deb Heinrich, Gov. Dannel Malloy’s liaison to the state’s nonprofit community, agreed to take the SNAP/Food Stamp Challenge this month and live on $4 a day for food for a week. We are posting her experience in this blog over the next few days. September is Hunger Awareness Month and to help increase awareness of the thousands of people in this state who are food insecure and those that live their lives hungry, I am going to take the SNAP Challenge. What is the SNAP Challenge? Well SNAP used to be called Food Stamps. SNAP stands for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. People who qualify for SNAP receive $4 per day to spend on food. The challenge is to try to live on those $4 per day for food. I’m going to take the challenge for one week. Therefore, I have $28 to spend on food for the week....
Continue reading »

This blog post is a reprint of an article that appears in the Junior League of Greater New Haven’s spring newsletter. Like many high school girls, this weekend Nayara Colon will be shopping. But unlike most, she’ll be at the supermarket, trying to stretch the $12.25 she’ll spend to feed herself for the week. Nayara will begin blogging about her experience eating on $1.75 a day, the amount of money a person working a full-time job at minimum wage would have if they spent 10 percent of their income on food. The inspiration for her blog project was Hunger 101, a program Connecticut Food Bank and the Junior League of Greater New Haven brought to her service learning class this fall. Her service learning teacher, Aaron Stelson, now a Hunger 101 facilitator himself, helped Nayara design and propose her project to a panel of community members who granted her the...
Continue reading »

Nearly 15 percent of Connecticut residents surveyed in the first half of 2010 said that in the prior 12 months there were times when they did not have enough money to buy the food they needed for themselves or their family. These survey results are according to the Food Research and Action Center’s series of analyses of survey data on food hardship collected by Gallup as part of the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index. This particular analysis looks at the most recent available food hardship rates by state, for the first half of 2010. In the year-round survey that began in January 2008, 1,000 individuals per day were asked, “Have there been times in the past 12 months when you did not have enough money to buy food that you or your family needed?” Additionally, the report compares results in the 12 month period from July 2008 through June 2009, to the...
Continue reading »

On December 9, the House of Representatives unanimously passed the Weekends Without Hunger Act (H.R. 5012), which Feeding America has been working to pass. This bill would support community efforts to feed low-income children during weekends and long school holidays. If the bill passes the Senate before Congress adjourns for the year, it would result in new opportunities for food banks to feed children on the weekends when they don’t have access to child nutrition programs. Help us urge the Senate to pass this important legislation. Here’s how you can call your Senator: Dial 877-698-8228 and enter your zip code to connect directly to your Senator’s office. Deliver this simple message: Please bring the Weekends Without Hunger Act (HR 5012) to the floor and pass it this year! Please take a moment to call your Senator today!

We recently sat down to talk to with Bill Lee, the recipient of our Hunger Action Hero Business Award, which was given in September. Bill owns Thermo King of Southern Connecticut. He has also been a partner with Connecticut Food Bank for the past 12 years, volunteering his time and equipment and making donations. As he does every year, Bill provided on-site refrigerated trucks for our large Thanksgiving for All food drives last week. These large-scale turkey collections in our communities would not be possible without his support. A true inspiration, Bill continues to make a difference in the community by hosting food drives. Below is our interview with the Thermo King himself. CFB: Congratulations on your recent Hunger Action Hero Business Award. What does this award mean to you personally? Bill: Well, I donate to a lot of different organizations and it felt really good to receive an award...
Continue reading »

The Connecticut Food Bank is more than 4,000 short of its expected demand for turkeys this holiday. The shortage means thousands of residents, many of them children, will not have a traditional Thanksgiving dinner this year. There are difficult financial strains due to the economic environment in our state. Connecticut Food Bank is asking everyone who is able to please consider donating a turkey to help others. This holiday represents an opportunity to reflect on those things we are all thankful for, a time for family and friends. Those who donate make it possible for everyone to be a part of the sharing process of Thanksgiving. Last year, Connecticut Food Bank distributed 26,503 turkeys and 491,000 pounds of food, which provided an estimated 590,000 meals for people in need during the holiday season. Every event planned for this month is critical, not only to collect food and funds, but also...
Continue reading »

Editor’s Note: On Oct. 1, Connecticut Food Bank’s Chief Development Officer Janet Kniffin held a Hunger 101 program at Pomfret School. Hunger 101 is an interactive, group learning experience for people age 12 and older. It gives people an opportunity to walk in someone else’s shoes and see firsthand what it’s like to struggle with poverty and hunger in Connecticut. Johara Tucker of Pomfret School wrote this post after she and her students experienced Hunger 101. Last week, more than 20 students went through the Hunger 101 program coordinated by Connecticut Food Bank. I had no idea what to expect but this program went above and beyond any kind of hunger awareness seminar I have ever been to. It’s one thing to watch the news and be well informed about hunger and other social issues, but to actually, even for a minute “feel” what it may be like for someone...
Continue reading »

Food insecurity. Food hardship. Low food security. These terms are supposed to describe what hunger means. But sadly they simply sanitize the real experience, failing to capture the real and daily struggle and stress of hunger. Our new interactive, group learning experience, called Hunger 101, gives people a taste of what food insecurity—or hunger—really is. We will offer our first public Hunger 101 session from 9:30 to 11 a.m. Sept. 11 at our main warehouse, 150 Bradley Street, East Haven. The program gives you an opportunity to walk in someone else’s shoes and see firsthand what it’s like to struggle with poverty and food insecurity in Connecticut. “This is a very important, eye-opening look at the experience that real people have who have to face food insecurity and all that goes with it every day of their lives,” Kathy Moran said in a Facebook posting. Kathy, who went through a...
Continue reading »