I don’t know about you, but I tend to think more highly of a company when it tries to give back to the community. Not long ago, I blogged about Blessings in a Backpack, a program to send food home with children who might not otherwise get any. It breaks my heart to think about children going to bed hungry at night.
Today, I was thinking about lunch and there is an Arby’s restaurant around the corner from where I work, so I looked up their web page. I had no idea they were trying to fight childhood hunger.
Arby’s partnered with the No Kid Hungry campaign and Share Our Strength in a pledge to end childhood hunger in America by 2015. Arby’s made an initial $300,000 donation to the campaign, but also donated $1 for every Foursquare check-in up to $50,000 last November (when the company announced this partnership). Arby’s also asked customers to donate $1 in the restaurants. In return, customers would get a $1 off coupon for the Ultimate Angus Philly sandwich.
As of today, 133,179 people have also taken the pledge. In taking the pledge, you state that you are adding your voice to the national movement, but there is more you can do. You can spread the word on Facebook or Twitter with friends. If some of my friends had done this, I might have known about the campaign sooner! If you don’t do social media, don’t fret – you can send emails to friends. You can attend purchase tickets to culinary event fundraisers in your area to support Share Our Strength. Finally, you can donate online at the No Kid Hungry website.
It is sad to think that in a country as advanced as America, there are still children going hungry. It seems like something we should be seeing on a newsreel from the turn of the 20th century, but it’s very real today. Even if you can only donate $1, the website says that can help a child get up to 10 healthy meals. After all, the children are our future – how can they learn and grow without good nutrition?