Feeding America, the nation’s largest hunger-relief network of 200 food banks, 21 statewide associations and 60,000 partner food pantries and meal programs, announced the launch of Elevating Voices to End Hunger, an effort aimed to collect input from people facing food insecurity. Through Elevating Voices to End Hunger, the Feeding America network will engage in a variety of activities to reach people in community, listen and learn with the goal of co-creating solutions to be shared with the White House, which has set a goal to end hunger by 2030.
“As the nationwide network of food banks, food pantries and meal programs, Feeding America provides billions of meals to tens of millions of people each year,” said Vince Hall, chief government relations officer at Feeding America. “The network covers every county, borough and parish and Elevating Voices aims to amplify the power and voices of neighbors in need across the country. Feeding America believes that communities understand the solutions to their problems better than anyone, and we want to help surface those solutions to inform policies and programs to end hunger.”
Elevating Voices to End Hunger will connect directly with individuals and families with living or lived experience of food insecurity through 100 listening sessions, 10,000 questionnaires and 100,000 text message conversations. That data and insights will be published in a report later this summer.
Earlier in May, the White House announced that it will host a conference on hunger, nutrition and health this September aimed at ending hunger, reducing diet-related disease, and increasing physical activity. Feeding America’s Elevating Voices to End Hunger initiative is supremely focused on guiding principles that put the people facing hunger at the center, with solutions grounded in preserving their dignity and agency.
“Hunger and food insecurity are nonpartisan issues and there are families, individuals, children and seniors facing hunger in every community,” continued Hall. “The Feeding America network has a long history of co-creating solutions with community partners. We strongly believe that hunger in America is solvable, and that this is a moment to come together and decide, once and for all, that hunger is unacceptable.”