Hunger is not an abstract idea. It is a reality affecting the lives of millions of Americans every single day. And it hits our children particularly hard, with over 16 million kids in our country experiencing food insecurity each year. Internationally, nearly 1 billion people across the globe will go to bed hungry tonight and 200 million of them are children. We can all play a role within our communities to ensure that no man, woman, or child faces hunger.
That is why I urge you to nominate extraordinary individuals in your community who are working to solve hunger for the “White House Champions of Change: Alleviating Hunger at Home and Abroad” program. Champions of Change seeks to highlight the stories of citizens across the country who are using innovative community-based approaches to reduce hunger and ensure that all people have access to enough food, both in the United States and internationally.
What does a champion look like? A champion may be someone who is working to supply healthy food to underserved populations through a community garden or farmers market. They may be someone who is expanding access to and the quality of summer feeding programs in their community to ensure that children are getting the food they need to grow up healthy all year round. Or they may be someone who is running a nutrition education and cooking program for low-income Americans, helping them to stretch their food dollars and heighten their awareness of the connection between diet and health.
Champions can be working internationally too. They can be serving communities working towards food security abroad, or pioneering programs that improve nutrition for mothers and children. Champions may be in the lab, researching solutions to productivity barriers facing farmers or solutions to plant diseases. Or they could be out in the field, working with farmers to increase their yields or build cooperatives to help get their food to market.
If you know someone working here or abroad who fits this description, please take the time to fill out our nomination form. Hunger is an issue we must address, but government cannot address it alone. Thanks to the champions in our neighborhoods and communities, progress is being made. These individuals deserve to be recognized for all of the great work that they do.
Please submit nominations for the champions in your community by midnight on Friday, June 29th by utilizing this form.