Kids Across Florida Are Going Hungry

“If you can’t feed a hundred people, then just feed one.”

– Mother Teresa

In many ways, Florida is the land of plenty – plenty of sunshine, plenty of beaches, plenty of entertainment, plenty of tourists, plenty of snowbirds and plenty of wealth. But, we also have plenty of hungry and plenty without nutritious food.

In the U.S., hunger is a reality for 1 out of every 6 people. Over 16 million children go to bed without food. Florida in particular suffers one of highest food insecure rates in the county at 16.1%*, meaning that over 1 million of our Florida kids are either hungry or starving.

And it continues to worsen.

Many people think the problems we face with hunger are only found in small pockets of society or in certain neighborhoods. The reality is much different. There are many people, hardworking adults with children, who simply cannot make ends meet and are forced to go without food.

It’s time to change that. NO CHILD SHOULD GO HUNGRY. EVER.

The mission of Kids Against Hunger, a humanitarian food aid organization, is to significantly reduce the number of hungry children in the U.S. and to feed starving children throughout the world. The organization is not affiliated with or restricted to a particular religious group. It doesn’t discriminate on any basis. If you’re hungry, they’ll help you.

The Kids Against Hunger approach to achieving its goal involves the packaging of highly nutritious, vitamin-fortified soy-rice casserole meals by volunteers. Formulated by food scientists, each casserole provides a rich source of easily digestible protein, carbohydrates and vitamins needed by a malnourished child’s body and mind. The packaged meals are distributed to starving children and their families in the U.S. and in over 60 counties through partnerships with global humanitarian organizations. Each meal costs about 23¢ a serving.

In 2011, Kids Against Hunger volunteers packaged 40 million meals for children around the corner and around the world. In Florida, we packaged 125,000 meals – well short of the organization’s 600,000 meal packaging goal.

That’s not enough. This year’s goal is even higher: 1 million meals. That’s right. One. Million. Meals.

Help HR Florida help our Florida children. We are once again partnering with Kids Against Hunger to sponsor a food packaging event at the 34th Annual State Conference & Expo at the Rosen Shingle Creek Resort. Last year, we raised $5,000+ in cash and packaged 20,000 meals.

That’s a lot, but this year I’m tossing you a challenge – help us raise $6,000 in cash and package 21,000 meals. That’s only $1 and one packaged meal per attendee more.

We can do it. I know we can.

Don’t wait – make an online donation at www.hrfloridaconference.org. Volunteer on site to spend an hour packaging the meals. It’s clean. It’s hygienic. It’s a good cause. It’s a helluva lot of fun.

The payoff? No matter how small, you WILL have made a huge difference in the lives of thousands of children and families who are hungry and starving here in Florida.

Take a stand today and join the HR Florida State Council, the 2012 Conference Team and our attendees, sponsors, exhibitors and partners in protecting our future through the feeding of our hungry children.

* Statistics cited from Kids Against Hunger and Feeding America. For more information, please visit www.kahcfl.org and www.feedingamerica.org.

Aside from being the 2011-2012 President of the HR Florida State Council, Heather E. Vogel, MHR, SPHR consults and speaks professionally with local and national Fortune 100 and 500 companies on human resources and organization development. As the HR Whisperer [hrwhisperer.com], she focuses on human behavior and its impact on the workplace to rehabilitate organizations by developing talent.  Heather has 20+ years of leadership experience across corporate and nonprofits alike – so she gets HR/OD from both sides of the financial equation.