THE NATION’S FINEST CULINARY BENEFIT TO END CHILDHOOD HUNGER.
WHAT IS SHARE OUR STRENGTH’S TASTE OF THE NATION®?
Share Our Strength’s Taste of the Nation® Los Angeles is one of 55 events across America dedicated to ending hunger in America. Each summer, LA’s hottest chefs and mixologists donate their time, talent and passion at the Taste of the Nation event at Media Park in Culver City to raise the critical funds needed to end childhood hunger by supporting our local recipients.
Our fundraiser on Sunday June 6, 2010, consists of featured cooking demonstrations in which your magnanimous personality and culinary prowess will undoubtedly make for the most successful event yet. From these demonstrations, we raise funds to support our local recipients, which this year include Los Angeles Regional Food Bank, St. Joseph’s Center, Los Angeles Coalition to End Hunger and Homelessness, and California Food Policy Advocates.
WHY WE ARE FOCUSING ON CHILDHOOD HUNGER
In the world’s wealthiest nation, no child should grow up hungry. Yet, more than 12 million children in America are at risk of hunger. That’s one in six with limited or uncertain access to the nutritious foods they need to develop to their full potential.
HOW WE WILL END CHILDHOOD HUNGER
Since 1988, we have been able to raise more than $70 million, which we invest in the most successful organizations that work with state and local organizations across America, in order to implement our national childhood hunger strategy as well as its supporting 10-point plan which includes providing communities and families resources to give the best health and nutritional choices to our children. Our strategy is focused on long-term solutions that support access to nutritious food and healthy food choices — the difference between feeding a family tonight, and ensuring that they never have to worry about when their next meal will come. It is designed to bridge the gaps between existing, effective programs and the families who need them. At its core are three sensible goals:
• Increase access to public and private programs that provide food to children and their families.
• Strengthen community infrastructure and systems that connect children to healthy food.
• Improve families’ knowledge about available programs and how to get the most from limited resources.
HOW WE INVEST TASTE OF THE NATION FUNDS
We support the most successful anti-hunger organizations in the United States through our national strategy. Domestically, we work with state and local organizations across America to implement our national childhood hunger strategy and its supporting 10-point plan.
We do this in two ways:
• We provide funding from Taste of the Nation events to establish state partnerships with organizations that demonstrate statewide influence and success in childhood hunger relief. Our funds help these organizations develop and execute their own state-specific plans modeled after our strategy.
• Through funds raised at Taste of the Nation events, we award grants to organizations whose efforts support our 10-point plan to end childhood hunger. This includes funding for Share Our Strength’s Operation Frontline®, our chef-led nutrition education program.
In all these ways, Share Our Strength’s Taste of the Nation is helping weave a net of community groups, activists and food programs to catch children at risk of hunger and surround them with nutritious food where they live, learn and play.