Fighting Hunger with Walmart

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Walmart for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

A few years back, I ran a volunteer outreach program with my church’s youth group – every month, I organized an opportunity for our kids to get involved with an area non-profit.  One October, we partnered with a local food pantry who had collection days that made it easy for neighborhood families to donate – just by placing a box or bag of non-perishable food items on their front porch.  The kids helped us collect all the food items from people’s houses, and bring them back to the the distribution center.

It’s one thing to see a box of food items from your own cupboard.  But these kids were amazed by how much food we were able to collect by being willing to come and get it from the area residents.  Someone remarked that no one would ever be able to eat all that food.

Of course, that wasn’t true.  Almost 50 million Americans – 1 in 6 – don’t know where their next meal is coming from at some point this year.  When we got back to the distribution site, some of the kids volunteered to stick around and help sort the food. One of the volunteers at the center gave the kids a tour, and explained that while it may look like a lot, this would only last a couple of weeks at the food pantries in the city.  These kids never had to worry about being hungry; the experience was a real eye-opener for most of them that there were people who had to choose between buying food or paying their bills.  When we got back to the church, one of the kids organized a special food drive for the center.  Rarely have I been that proud. :)

Walmart has the same commitment to helping the hungry with their Fighting Hunger Together program.

Through October 12, if you shop at Walmart and purchasing Unilver, Kellog’s, General Mills, Kraft Foods, and ConAgra Foods products and using the Give Meals initiative, you can generate meal donations to hungry people all over America.  Just follow the instructions on the packaging, visit Walmart’s hunger relief page on their website, or use the mobile app to make a difference.

In my house, we of course go through a LOT of Cheerios.  Raya loves them!  So it makes me feel good to know that General Mills is a partner in this, and that I can generate seven meals to help the hungry, just by visiting the “Give Meals” section of www.walmart.com/hunger.

While you’re there, check out Walmart’s Golden Spark promotion – you have the chance to win $50,000 for your community to either start or expand a backpack program that provides vital meals to hungry kids on the weekends, when they don’t have access to free or reduced-priced school meals. 40 “Golden Sparks” will be randomly awarded to those who participate in the Golden Spark promotion.

I’d love to hear your stories about things you’ve done to help fight hunger – or a time when you yourself experienced hunger.  Small actions make a big difference when it comes to helping others!