Dear Friend,
We are in a hunger crisis. Again.
The number of Americans who didn’t have enough to eat over a one-week period increased by 52 percent – from 18 million to 27 million -- between August 2021 and August 2023. Over this past year, childhood poverty has doubled*. Why?
The answer is simple. Even before the pandemic, America suffered from high rates of hunger due to low wages. In the pandemic, things went from bad to worse, and hunger skyrocketed. Hunger Free America played a significant role in convincing the President and Congress to dramatically increase food and cash aid, and hunger decreased. Now that most of that expanded government aid has ended – and inflation is still taking a big bite out of food budgets – hunger is once again skyrocketing.
We are proud of what we have accomplished this year. As just one example of our highly impactful work, thanks to your partnership, over the past year, we connected over 5,000 households to vital food programs, securing them more than $18 million in SNAP and WIC nutrition assistance benefits.
We’ll keep working to both effectively help people meet their immediate food needs, while effectively advocating to fix the underlying policy causes of hunger: low wages and an inadequate safety net.
We would not be able to help families across the country keep food on the table without your meaningful contributions. Despite our best efforts, hunger rates -- including child hunger rates -- are soaring. Additionally, the nation experienced a major decline in overall charitable giving in 2022 and 2023, the first such decline in decades, and our organization was not immune. Our funding has decreased at a time when people need us more than ever.
I am calling on you as one of Hunger Free America’s most committed anti-hunger champions to join us once again in this fight to ensure every American family has enough food. As we emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic, we know that families are still reeling from its effects: lost wages, health crises, and economic uncertainty. As we continue to face these immense challenges head on, your support matters more than ever. With your continued generosity, we can end hunger in America, once and for all.
As you think of your end of year philanthropy, please consider making your gift to HFA among your most significant. Together, we can end hunger.
Please make any tax-deductible donation you can afford to Hunger Free America.
|
|
Sincerely,
Joel Berg, CEO
Hunger Free America
|
|
|
|
