Imagine a country in such dire straits that half of its children wouldn’t get meals without government help. You may immediately have thought of some Third World country, but the startling fact is that almost half of the children in this country will be on food stamps at some point in their childhood. The number is even more shocking when you focus on African American children: 90 percent of them will be on food stamps at one point. Last week, a study was released that looked at 30 years of national data and warned that these numbers could get pushed even higher if the recession continues.

The study also cautioned pediatricians that they need to be on the lookout for illnesses related to malnutrition. That warning extends even to pediatricians in so-called “nice” neighborhoods, because the economic downturn has broadened the types of people who have had to turn to food stamps to feed their families. We know from a study funded by our foundation that children who eat breakfast perform in school better and have fewer hunger-related problems such as dizziness, lethargy, stomachaches and earaches. It’s not a stretch to say that pediatricians might start seeing an increase in these symptoms in a broader spectrum of their patients as economic woes spread.

In this type of economic climate, food banks play a crucial role in filling the gaps. This is why Sodexo founded and continues to sponsor our Helping Hands Across America program, a  month-long effort that encourages our employees and customers to collect non-perishable food items to fight hunger in their own communities. The effort culminates today – November 12 – when we all try to set a new world record for the “largest food drive by a non-charitable organization in a 24-hour period.” The Guinness Book of World Records will determine whether we set the record, but the current record to beat is 510,000 pounds of food collected.

The challenge to beat the record is a fun one, but the intent behind it is much more serious – to bring attention to the problem of hunger in this country, and to engage as many people as possible in trying to stop it

You can follow our progress or get involved by becoming a fan on Facebook or following @STOPhungerNov12 on twitter.

And, of course, you can help by bringing nonperishable food to your community food bank!

Carol Marquart, HR Manager, Berry Plastics/Goshen, Indiana

As I sit in my office at Berry Plastics located in Goshen, Indiana, I see people come up and read the sign on our door: “Currently not accepting applications”.  These people walk away with their heads facing the ground. Our county has a 19% unemployment rate.  You can’t help but ask yourself, “What can we do to make a difference?”  Every one of our employees either has a spouse, friend, neighbor or family member that has lost their jobs in this ailing economy. One day in early June an employee, Dave Riggs, came to me and said “I have an idea.   Let’s plant sweet corn in our seven acres of empty land and donate it to the food banks to help them feed the unemployed.”

I was amazed.  Dave and I presented the idea to our Gung Ho Team. I immediately contacted Tom Kercher, owner of Sunrise Orchards.

Tom said, “That will be a lot of sweet corn, but why not, let’s do it.” 

Kercher’s Sunrise Orchard, T & T Fertilizer and Berry Plastics united to feed the hungry. 

On June 22nd the seeds were planted.

Employees watched as the corn began to grow.  Instead of complaining that it was raining, we rejoiced as the corn field was being nourished with the blessings of the rainfalls.

Earlier this fall, Dave’s idea became reality.  The harvest began at 8:00AM and the first food bank was here at 9:00.  There were more than 15 food banks and charities that arrived in cars, pickup trucks, box trucks and semis. 

More than 108,000 ears of corn ended up on the plates of the hungry.

Berry Plastics supplies cater ware, cutlery and trash bags to Sodexo.  It is companies like Sodexo and Berry Plastics that help inspire others to make a difference.

Corporations have discovered that doing good can be good business. Not only does helping a charity polish a company’s image in the community, but it can be good for the bottom line, since consumers say they like purchasing from companies that wear a white hat. Whole cottage industries have arisen around cause marketing, and U.S. sponsorship spending on cause marketing will hit $1.57 billion this year. Of course, that pales in comparison to what companies are spending to sponsor sports -- $11.4 billion – but still, cause marketing is a growing category.

Unlike an outright gift to a nonprofit, cause marketing is a two-way deal in which a company expects to sell more product and/or gain visibility at the same time it raises money for the nonprofit. A cynic would say that cause marketing is a company’s way of buying itself into that white hat, but the truth is that nonprofits – and the people they help – are benefiting from the money raised.

At the Sodexo Foundation, we’ve dedicated ourselves to fighting hunger, but with 35 million people in this country at risk for hunger, we’re under no illusions that one company on its own can end hunger. So, we’re grateful that cause marketing is on the rise because the contributions from companies who are helping us fight hunger can add up. But with the help of our vendor partners, we can make a difference.

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 "Mahalo,” --  Hawaiian for “thank  you” --  says the greeting card so big it covers the desk. Another oversized card has a note addressed to “Dear People I Don’t Know…” and it talks about seeing hungry and sad children start to smile because they have food. Most people think of Hawaii as a tropical paradise, with happy residents surfing and basking in the sun. But in this island paradise there are children whose summertime is not carefree, but filled with the anguish of not knowing if they will get anything to eat each day. When schools close and the federally-subsidized school lunch programs end, children in Hawaii and throughout the nation are left to fend for themselves to find something to eat.  With growing unemployment, more people are turning to food pantries and soup kitchens for help….but food pantries’ donations have declined.

Where can our nation’s most vulnerable citizens turn for help?

There are no easy solutions – but Sodexo has a program that offers some help. Feeding Our Future is a Sodexo Foundation-funded program created to make sure that there are no “vacations from lunch” for those children who depend on school programs for their nutrition. Established in 1997, Feeding Our Future is operating in 20 cities across the U.S., from Honolulu to Boston. Funding for this program comes from the Sodexo Foundation as well as the generosity of many of our vendor partners who provide some of the food and help this program succeed.

The program out of the University of Hawaii distributed 13,530 meals to Boys and Girls Clubs this summer, who fed children what was likely their only meal of the day. The children ate sandwiches and several hot meals each week, and as summer ended, they sent photos of themselves eating Sodexo lunches to say “mahalo.”

At another Feeding Our Future program, hundreds of children – from pre-school to high school – showed up at the Andrew & Walter Young YMCA in downtown Atlanta for food and fun. Some children too poor to join the YMCA had gotten in the habit of sneaking into the building to try to find food. Any time there was food left over from the lunch program, the “sneak-in” kids were invited to eat. No child was turned away according to the YMCA’s Executive Director, Diane Baker King.

This week, the program winds up with a big barbecue, with all the program’s children, senior citizens who can not afford meals, and the “sneak-ins” invited to sit down and enjoy hot dogs, hamburgers, garden burgers and cookies. Sodexo employees will fire up the grills and serve the food, most of it outside but some served in classrooms because the younger children’s “little legs won’t even reach the floor under the picnic table,” says James Winkler, Sodexo’s Corporate Services General Manager in Atlanta.

Baker King says the Feeding Our Future program has made a huge difference.

“People say there are not words to express it and it’s a cliché but it’s true,” she says. “We have the opportunity to practice what we teach. Food always brings people together, it calms the atmosphere. To be able to have that source in the midst of an economic crisis is more than a blessing.”

There are more than 13 million children in America who are at risk of hunger. I’d like to know where is the moral outrage? Why does this tragedy continue year after year? I’d love to hear from you if you have ideas for solutions or if you want to help, there is lots you can do. 

My colleague Steve Brady, President of the Sodexo Foundation, of which I am a board member, recently participated in a panel discussion with Universities Fighting World Hunger. One of the other participants was Haley Walker of the Committee of 19 at Auburn University, a great organization of students fighting hunger. Steve said he was impressed when Haley quoted Helen Keller, who said, “I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; and because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do.” 

Haley is just one of many motivated students across America who are engaged in the fight against hunger. Young people can very clearly see injustices and are willing to take action even if they are only one.