by  Linda St.Cyr, Contributing Writer

"Fighting Hunger Together" is the name of the charity drive that was launched by Walmart in order to provide food pantries with supplies. Walmart will be donating $1.5 million dollars combine to six major American cities to aid the local food pantries in those cities. Walmart is using the social media website, Facebook, to determine which cities should get the green. Users of Facebook can go under Walmart's campaign, "Fighting Hunger Together", and "Like" the city that they feel deserves the money.

The voting through the "Like" button will go on through December 31st, 2010. Walmart chose to 100 metropolitan areas that can be voted for. According to the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC), these areas were identified as having the highest rate of food hardship in 2010.

You can view on the "Fighting Hunger Together" website what rank your chosen city has. Currently, the top three ranked cities are Fresno, California, Salt Lake City, Utah, and Columbia, South Carolina. The number one ranked city at the end of voting on December 31st will be given $1 million dollars. The next five runners up will each receive $100,000.00 for the local food banks in the area.

Walmart's philanthropy should not go unnoticed. In the past the huge retail store has run multiple programs (scholarships, grant funding, volunteer work) and is known for giving back to the communities which make it thrive. In 2009, the superstore donated 100 million pounds of food to food banks in the United States. Walmart has always been "Fighting Hunger Together", will you join them?


*The Fighting Hunger Together website is no longer available. However, Walmart still has a page on their website called "Fight Hunger Spark Change" that you can check out.

by  Linda St.Cyr, Contributing Writer

September is the month to get involved and feel inspired by joining Hunger Action Month. Feeding America has launched a “30 ways in 30 days” initiative to get people involved in making a difference during hunger awareness month.

September is the month to take action. A good start to taking action this month is by signing the pledge to participated in 30 ways in 30 days at the Hunger Action Month website. Then explore the different ways you can make a difference in the lives of the community around you. Find one way or several ways that you can help feed the hungry during this important month where we fight to stomp out domestic hunger.

A few of the ideas provided by Hunger Action Month include giving to food pantries, setting up a food drive, writing letters to elected officials about the importance of food programs, and making donations to local food bank programs. If you decide to give to food pantries or hold a food drive keep in mind that there are some foods that are more needed than others. Cheeto’s and Dorito’s are nice snacks but feeding the hungry means also providing good nutrition too.

Some of the most needed foods are canned protein’s (tuna fish, salmon, potted meat, chicken), canned fruits in water or light syrup, condiments, whole grain foods (rice, pasta, mac & cheese), 100% juices, dry and canned soups, canned vegetables and multi-grain cereals like Cheerios.

Will you be joining in Hunger Action Month? Leave a comment below and tell us what you will be doing to make a difference and help the fight against domestic hunger.

by  Linda St.Cyr, Contributing Writer

On September 9th, Morgan Stanley launched a new campaign to fight against childhood hunger by partnering with Feeding America. The new campaign is called "Fill the Plate" and targets combating hunger during the weekends and after-school hours when children are most at risk of hunger

The partnership between Morgan Stanley and Feeding America is intended to strengthen and expand Feeding America's BackPack Program. The BackPack Program is designed for children to easily and discreetly give children access to nonperishable, nutritious foods. The backpacks are filled with foods and then distributed to children on the last day before the weekend or holiday vacation from school. According to Feeding America, during the fiscal year of 2009 over 190,000 children were served and over 3.7 million backpacks were distributed because of the backpack program. With the help of Morgan Stanley's "Fill the Plate" campaign, the hope is that the number of packs distributed will increase another 25% with more than 900,000 children being served by the end of 2014.

Morgan Stanley launched "Fill the Plate" on its 75th anniversary renewing their ongoing commitment to children's health issues and community service. President and CEO of Morgan Stanley, James Gorman, said of the partnership,

"Good nutrition is essential for children's success in school and throughout life.We look forward to partnering with Feeding America, an organization that knows how to make a genuine impact in communities across the U.S."

Vicki Escarra, President and CEO of Feeding America, said of the partnership with the leading global financial services firm, "We applaud and welcome Morgan Stanley to the frontline in our continued fight to end hunger within our lifetime."

This is not the first program Morgan Stanley has stood firmly behind. In the past 50 years, The Morgan Stanley Foundation has advocated, campaigned, initiated projects and/or given non-profits grant funding. Some of the projects and non-profits supported by Morgan Stanley include the Global Alliance for Children's Health, the Million Meals Summer Program, Grow Clinics, Mount Sinai Sexual Assault and Violence Intervention Program (SAVI), Renewable Energy Projects, the Carbon Disclosurer Project and Education scholarships, internship and career development.