by Ed Nicholson Note: I’ve decided to go back and repost some things from years past that are still timely. This one originally posted in June of 2010. It remains relevant as we approach the end of the school year. Ed As I post this on Friday afternoon, tens of thousands of kids at risk of hunger around the country [...]

Five years ago, excited about the possibilities social channels offered to fostering a healthy national discussion about hunger, I posted a piece in this blog entitled “Where’s the Online Discussion About Hunger?”     There’s a tremendous hunger community in this country.   I’ve learned so much from them over the past thirteen years, and am always interested in being part of the [...]

Guest post by Kelly Nuckolls Students and faculty from more than 50 colleges, universities, and hunger groups from across the United States and seven countries attended the 8th Annual Universities Fighting World Hunger Food Summit in Overland Park, Kansas, March 2nd-4th. This was the first time the event was hosted by a coalition of institutions. Under the leadership of Kansas [...]

For the third year in a row, the AgChat Foundation is leading an effort to generate awareness and gratitude for those who put food on our tables.  If you’d like to learn more about it, go over to #FoodThanks. Here’s my post from the first year. I think it’s still relevant: I’m one of the lucky ones. I have a [...]

Video from the Tyson Foods/Urban League/Mississippi Foodbank Network donation and nutrition fairs in central Mississippi, September 19 and 20, 2012.

A couple of weeks ago, I posted a piece asking the question, “Does SNAP have an image problem?”   Are there a lot of people out there who sincerely believe SNAP is rife with abuse and fraud, ala the “Welfare Queen” myth?  Do they have influence?  If so, how might that influence be affecting Farm Bill votes? Can minds be changed? [...]

Before I go further, let me state the following is my personal opinion, not necessarily that of Tyson Foods, or anyone else in the company. I ran across a post on my Facebook news feed yesterday from Feeding America talking about their Invest an Acre partnership with Monsanto, ADM, and the Howard Buffett Foundation, in which they’re encouraging farmers to pledge an acre of their [...]

Many of us had an opportunity to meet Elanco CEO Jeff Simmons at an exercise  Tyson Foods and Elanco conducted recently to make senior executives aware of the challenges of shopping on a SNAP budget.   Jeff is a man who is truly on a mission. Since Elanco has become actively engaged in hunger relief, Jeff has become knowledgeable and sincerely passionate [...]

I’m going to poke an elephant in the room. Right now, the Supplemental Assistance Nutrition Program  (SNAP, formerly the Food Stamp program)   is simply the best tool we have at our immediate disposal for addressing chronic food insecurity in the U.S. Problem is, in spite of its being one of the most-needed and best-managed government programs out there, a LOT [...]

Last week, I asked the question—which I’ve been asking for years—“Where’s the online discussion of hunger?”   Crickets. Dang folks.  These online channels—blogs, social media, forums, etc.—offer enormous potential for exciting and diverse discourse.  The hunger community is a passionate and opinionated bunch.  There’s enough diversity of thought among those who care about feeding people to have some really interesting discussion [...]

This is a post from four years ago, May, 2008.  I didn’t receive much of an answer then.  There were only a few of us involved in hunger relief using social channels back then.  Since then, use of social media has exploded. Most every hunger relief organization has an active social media presence now.  Take a look at the post [...]

At Tyson Foods, one of the things we’ve been trying to do with our hunger program in recent years is involve our stakeholders wherever possible.  That starts first and foremost with about 100,000 Team Members (employees) across 26 states.  We’ve also worked in activities with customers, vendors, communities, and advocacy groups. We were excited last week to announce a partnership [...]

Tom Nelson, President of Share Our Strength We were in Little Rock last week for the annual Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance  Serving Up Solutions dinner at the Governor’s mansion.   Arkansas First Lady, Ginger Beebe, along with members of the Arkansas Legislature Hunger Caucus served as waiters for the dinner.  It’s a great event, which brings together folks involved in hunger [...]

A year ago this morning, after hearing of the devastation suffered by our neighbors in Joplin, folks from several nearby Tyson Foods locations arrived on the scene to offer whatever assistance we could provide. The scene was stunning.  Chaotic. Confusing.  The tragedy has been well-documented. Tyson Team Members spent three weeks in Joplin, with up to six teams cooking and [...]

Many in the hunger community are already aware of the passing last week of our colleague and dear friend, Sue Brockway.  While her death was no surprise, it leaves those who knew Sue with a deep sense of loss.  To those who received the news directly from me last week, I’ll apologize for using the same words here, but I [...]