Last year, we had the opportunity to work with the San Francisco Food Bank and a great group of  bloggers to help raise awareness for hunger in the Bay Area during Hunger Action Month. It was a successful effort in which we asked for–and received–your assistance.   More than 2100 comments were submitted to this post, resulting in five truckoads of food being donated to Bay Area Food Banks.

We’re going to try something similar this year, with the help of the Hunger Challenge bloggers and the Social Media Club of San Francisco.

The whole idea is to use social media tools to increase awareness of the issue of hunger.  We won’t try to bribe you to become a Facebook fan. You don’t have to buy any products.  Here’s all you have to do:

There’s a list of hunger facts below.  All Tweetable.  Tweet  or retweet any of them with the hashtag  #HChal and Tyson Foods will make a 100 pound donation (up to a total of 100,000 pounds) to the San Francisco Food Bank.  Blog about this effort and we’ll donate 500 pounds.  Or comment to this post with your own verifiable fact (not opinion)  about hunger and we’ll donate 100 pounds.   That’s all you have to do. Let’s see how far and fast we can spread these facts out there in Twittervillle. If you’d like to make reference to this post, here’s a shortened URL:  http://bit.ly/sBE9x

Tweetable Facts About Hunger

More than 35 mil. people in the U.S. are on food stamps–up 3 million since Jan.  #HChal

App. 40% of families now on food stamps have "earned income"–up from just 25% 2 years ago.  #HChal #hungeraction

For every $1 donated @SFFoodBank can distribute $9 worth of groceries. #HChal #hungeraction

In San Francisco, 150K people are unsure where their next meal is coming from. #HChal #hungeraction

1 in 4 San Francisco children lack reg.access to food they need to learn, grow, & have a healthy start in life. #HChal

1 in 5 San Francisco adults can’t count on daily meals they need to lead healthy, productive lives. #HChal

1 in 4 San Francisco seniors lack the nourishment need to control chronic health problems. #HChal

@SFFoodBank distributed over 33.5 million pounds of food in the past year–nearly 8% more than the year before. #HChal

60% of the clients @SFFoodBank served last year come from working families.  #HChal

In CA, the average food stamp recicipient gets $4 a day to spend on food.  #HChal #hungeraction

In CA, a single person can get food stamps only if their yearly gross income is $14,079 or less. #HChal

5.3 mil. Californians are living below the federal poverty line ($21,834 for a family of 4) #HChal

The number of households participating in @SFFoodbank’s grocery pantry program is up 24% over last year. #HChal

You can help alleviate hunger with a single tweet this week:  http://bit.ly/sBE9x (no purchase or FB signup nec.) #HChal