- Olivia Newton John’s pop single Magic topped the charts.
- The who shot JR was the number one watched TV show – an episode of Dallas.
- CNN debuted as a controversial new cable experiment
More than thirty years have passed since a fledging hunger movement gave birth to the Capital Area Food Bank. In that time, CAFB has provided tens of millions of meals to children, seniors and families throughout the region.
But, hunger is still with us and the primary difference is that we have an even deeper and more nuanced understanding of how critical food is to education, to health and employment – the three building blocks of a strong society.
We now have the burden of knowledge.
We know that the lack of nutrition in a person’s early years can affect brain development and cognitive capacity.
We know that a lack of healthy food can impair development of a child’s immune system for life.
That’s why the fact that there are 681,000 hungry people, including 200,000 children, in our region is unacceptable. (Our calculation of hunger is based on 185 percent times the federal poverty level, because we believe, as do many nonprofits, that the poverty level is artificially low.)
If we let those numbers stand, we will be undermining what we value most in society – education, health and employment.
That’s why at CAFB, we are attempting to ignite a new movement against hunger by identifying and encouraging neighborhood volunteers to join us. Although we have a hard working staff that gathers, gleans and procures more than 40 million pounds of food that produces 33 million meals across the region, we can’t do it alone.
We need volunteers who will become neighborhood captains. If this interests you, go to our Neighborhood Captains page. This will bring you to the Interest form and the Hunger Course which is a test to find out how much you know about hunger. After that, you will assist us with the following:
- Reach out to neighborhood listservs,
- Serve as a liaison to neighborhood grocery stores and businesses,
- Engage with neighborhood organizations, groups and places of worship,
- Start neighborhood food drives,
- Initiate neighborhood fundraisers,
- Organize neighborhood volunteer opportunities, and
- Represent the food bank at neighborhood events.
As you begin your service as a volunteer Neighborhood Captain, you may realize that your neighborhood is suited more to some of the engagement opportunities listed above than others. You may also discover new ways to engage your neighborhood with the Capital Area Food Bank that are not listed, or you might not have the capacity or time to address all of these opportunities. For these reasons, it is important to remember this list of recommendations is not mandatory, but instead should be seen as examples of ways to join us in engaging your neighborhood to end hunger.
Thank you for volunteering with the Capital Area Food Bank as a volunteer Neighborhood Captain! Together, we can solve hunger.