Partner + Nonprofit Highlight: World Food Day

October 20, 2021 | Grace Duginski
Partner + Nonprofit Highlight: World Food Day

Across much of the world, autumn is famously a time of harvest and bounty. It makes sense, then, that the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations established World Food Day to fall on October 16 — a day to focus attention across sectors (including in the nonprofit and NGO sector) on issues of hunger, food insecurity, agriculture, and sustainability.

According to the FAO:

Collective action across 150 countries is what makes World Food Day one of the most celebrated days of the UN calendar. Hundreds of events and outreach activities bring together governments, businesses, NGOs, the media, and general public. They promote worldwide awareness and action for those who suffer from hunger and for the need to ensure healthy diets for all.

World Food Day 2021[… took place as] countries around the world [continue to] deal with the widespread effects of the global Covid-19 pandemic[… and] look into the future we need to build together.

EveryAction is proud to partner with nonprofits like Feeding America, WhyHunger, and So Others Might Eat, who are focused on addressing hunger, food insecurity, and food justice; as well as agencies like THD, who work in support of nonprofits whose missions center these urgent issues.

Feeding America

With over 200 food banks, 60,000 food pantries and meal programs, and 4 billion meals served to 1 in 7 Americans, Feeding America is delivering programs at the front line of hunger — and advancing their mission, “to advance change in America by ensuring equitable access to nutritious food for all in partnership with food banks, policymakers, supporters, and the communities [they] serve.”

Originally established in 1979 as the Second Harvest network, Feeding America’s approach to food insecurity has evolved over their 40-year-and-counting history, and they now unite food programs, food rescue, disaster response, and hunger research to help millions of Americans have food today and food security tomorrow.

Feeding America’s work has only grown in the light of the COVID-19 pandemic and other disasters. The Chronicle of Philanthropy in March 2021 published an analysis of a report from Candid and the Center for Disaster Philanthropy on recent increases in pandemic- and racial justice-driven funding to nonprofits. The Chronicle reported that “human-service organizations received the largest share of money at 28 percent, followed by health (26 percent) and education (20 percent.)” Some groups, like Feeding America, saw large individual gifts from major donors, and now are strategizing how to retain that critical support as COVID-19 pandemic relief efforts go on and hunger remains an issue.

As Feeding America describes their work today:

“Today, Feeding America is the nation’s largest domestic hunger-relief organization—a powerful and efficient network of 200 food banks across the country. As food insecurity rates hold steady at the highest levels ever, the Feeding America network of food banks has risen to meet the need. We feed 40 million people at risk of hunger, including 12 million children and 7 million seniors.

Learn more about how Feeding America directs food to people in need.

THD

Overnight, the pandemic put extreme demands on our nation. It drove millions of people to seek food assistance, many for the first time. Feeding America, working in the fight to end hunger, rose to meet the overwhelming demand. THD is so grateful for their long-standing partnership with Feeding America, a pillar of the nonprofit community achieving social impact at a grand scale. For more than 40 years, they have responded to the needs of individuals facing food insecurity in the United States by getting nourishing food to millions of children and adults who do not get the meals they need to thrive.

THD is honored to have played a part in Feeding America’s growth and innovation as they’ve risen to the task of serving people facing hunger, and applauds their groundbreaking work on World Food Day this October, and every day throughout the year. THD is grateful for Feeding America’s continuing trust, and for the opportunity to walk alongside them for more than a decade — and into the future.

WhyHunger

A global nonprofit founded in 1975 on the fundamental belief that access to nutritious food is a human right and hunger is a solvable problem, WhyHunger provides critical resources to support grassroots movements and fuels community solutions to hunger rooted in social, environmental, racial, and economic justice. For more than 46 years, they have been building a broad-based movement led by the grassroots to change the systems, policies and institutions that perpetuate hunger and poverty in our world.

WhyHunger saw an urgent need to scale up their work in 2019, and they built up their infrastructure just in time: the COVID-19 pandemic and Black Lives Matter protests of 2020 brought conversations about the intersectional nature of social justice to the forefront for many new and current donors, and WhyHunger saw a huge influx of support.

To learn more about how EveryAction supported WhyHunger’s fundraising and programmatic growth at a critically important time for their mission, download our full case study — and learn more about WhyHunger’s work.

So Others Might Eat (SOME)

An interfaith, community-based service organization, SOME exists to help and support residents of our nation’s capital experiencing homelessness and poverty. SOME offers a variety of services, including affordable housing, counseling, addiction treatment, and job training. In addition, SOME helps meet immediate daily needs by providing food, clothing, and healthcare to those in need.

What began as a soup kitchen in 1970 has now expanded to include work guided by these values:

  • We value an interfaith approach of service to our brothers and sisters in need and welcome the assistance of all concerned persons.
  • We value empowering the people we serve by respecting their human dignity and by helping them to restore hope in their lives.
  • We value advocacy on behalf of those we serve in collaborative partnerships to address the root causes of homelessness, hunger, and poverty.
  • We value responsible stewardship of the resources provided by our donors, volunteers, and employees.
  • We value integrity and trust by setting high standards for inclusive policies, practices, and behaviors that are objective and fair.

Like WhyHunger and Feeding America, SOME saw a flood of support in 2020 — and needed to take the opportunity to engage more supporters and donors, without taking on exponentially greater amounts of fundraising work. Their email fundraising, a large part of their strategy, received a boost from EveryAction’s Optimized Ask functionality — download our full case study to learn more, and learn more about SOME’s work.

Our Take

In times of urgent need, connecting with more supporters, across more channels, and engaging them with more programs shouldn’t require more work — especially when the issue is as serious and time-bound as food insecurity. EveryAction is proud to partner with Feeding America, WhyHunger, SOME, THD, and other organizations addressing hunger and building a more food-secure and sustainable future. Talk to us to learn more about how a purpose-built, unified or highly-integrated platform like EveryAction can lend the support organizations need to advance their missions.