In every community, people suffer from hunger. And many PTOs respond to that need with food drives. Now PTO Today is helping organize Schools Fight Hunger, the largest coordinated school food drive ever. The goal of Schools Fight Hunger is to mobilize schools and parent groups in every community nationwide.
Please join us whether or not your school currently runs a food drive. With your help, this new nonprofit effort will bring millions of pounds of food from our school families directly to those in need in our communities.
Hunger has a stunning impact on those who struggle with it, especially schoolchildren. Our local food pantries are the front line of this battle; in 2009, roughly one in eight Americans sought emergency food assistance of some sort during the year, according to one report. Schools can be key partners in filling the shelves at those pantries and in creating powerful awareness throughout our communities.
Imagine tens of thousands of PTOs and PTAs working together to help solve the childhood hunger crisis in America. Sharing ideas and tools for making food drives more effective. Reporting results to emphasize our schools’ collective power to make change. Inspiring millions of kids to give back to their communities. That’s Schools Fight Hunger.
PTO Today is proud to be a founding partner in this effort. Along with the national sponsor, ConAgra Foods Foundation, and key supporters like Share Our Strength and Youth Service America, we’re committed to helping end childhood hunger.
The Schools Fight Hunger collective effort will begin this fall as schools start running food drives and connecting with local hunger agencies or food pantries. Every drive matters, big or small. Your efforts can be as simple as donating a few boxes of food or as complex as creating a schoolwide education campaign and a townwide collection effort. Through the website schoolsfighthunger.org, Schools Fight Hunger will provide the resources to help you every step of the way.
If you’re thinking of starting a drive, connect with Schools Fight Hunger and get step-by-step instructions and support. Even if you’ve been running a food drive for years, connect your drive with Schools Fight Hunger and join us in this nationwide movement to end childhood hunger. In both cases, we’ll provide free resources to make your drive the best it can be: posters, flyers, templates, thank-you letters for supporters and families, inspiration for coordinators and students.
The first step to get connected is to visit schoolsfighthunger.org and to start making plans for your 2010-11 Schools Fight Hunger food drive efforts. Together, we can make a difference.
