Hunger Free CommunitiesHumanize Hunger

Accelerate Local Action

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5/24/10

History In the fall of 2002, The New York Times ran a series of articles on poverty in the U.S. One article described the town of Pembroke, Illinois, a community so poor that some houses had dirt floors and there were tires on many roofs to keep them from blowing away. Pam Koner, a Westchester, New York mom and entrepreneur, read that article and felt compelled to help. Koner contacted an outreach worker in Pembroke with the simple idea of linking families she knew with “more” to families with less, and was given the names of 17 of the neediest Pembroke families. She then convinced 16 friends and neighbors to join her, and they each began sending monthly boxes of food (and letters) to “their” matched families. Family-to-Family was born. 17 families soon grew to 60… and after a flurry of media exposure (including coverage by CBS News, The New York Times, Oprah Magazine, People Magazine and Reader’s Digest), 60 families grew to over 750 linked families across the U.S. http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/05/14/cnnheroes.pam.koner/#cnnSTCVideo

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History 2009 at a Glance

Today Family-to-Family serves impoverished families in Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, New Mexico, New York, South Dakota, & West Virginia.

More than 2,100 children and adults currently receive food each month from Family-to-Family’s donating families.

Our over 1,700 donating family members currently come from 32 states.Annual donations for the purchase of food for individual families total approximately $157,000. F-to-F currently supplies families in need with 180,000 meals annually, and has supplied over 1,118,500 meals since we began.

The first international model of Family-to-Family, opened in 2007 in Kampala, Uganda, serving children and families devastated by the AIDS/HIV epidemic

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How it works…. FOOD BOXESFood banks and supplemental food services programs often dry up before the end of each month. In response to this crisis, each month, member families across the U.S. each pack a box filled with 7 days worth of non-perishable dinner-type foods, include a non-food essential (e.g. warm winter gloves, paper goods or over the counter medications), and seal it with a letter to their sponsored family. The box packed by mom, dad and kids is shipped to a community outreach worker in the receiving community who ensures that it is delivered to the specific family in need which it is intended for. Families are matched whenever possible by the number and ages of children. There are limited middle men, Family-to-Family pulls the veil of anonymity and shame off hunger, and reduces administrative costs. A key aspect of the program is letter writing; sponsoring and sponsored families exchange letters, creating a personal connection between them that provides hope and inspiration.

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How it works…. CYBER-SPONSORSHIPDonor families sign up on our website (www.famtofamily.org) to sponsor a family online choosing a family from one of five U.S. communities. $31 a month is deducted from their credit card and 100% of the funds (minus the approx. $1 transaction fee we are charged by PayPal) are used to purchase groceries locally for “their” specific family. An on the ground community worker receives the funds and shops for the local families which also encourage local economic development. As with the food box model, sponsoring and sponsored families are encouraged to exchange letters or emails regularly. Donors are also encouraged to send non-food essentials along with a gently used children’s book, clothing, etc. to their sponsored family every month. .

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OUR SUPPLEMENTAL PROGRAMS are aimed at providing impoverished families with a connection to the world outside their limited community, with hope for the future, and a leg up out of poverty:

Victory Garden Project – a way to help families rise out of poverty and into self-sufficiency by teaching the skills needed to grow and can fruits and vegetables and to farm chickens. Families are mentored and supplied with seeds and chickens; after they complete a growing season they in turn become mentors to other families.

Seeds for Change – A seed drive to keep families in our receiving communities supplied with fruit and vegetable seeds. Donors purchase seeds online or in stores and send them to Family-to-Family; we then distribute them to our community outreach partners for distribution.

10,000 Families Strong Campaign – a registry of potential donors that receive regular updates about F-to-F and our campaign to link families with “more” to families with “profoundly less”. 10,000 Families Strong registered families are donors available to help Family-to-Family extend its reach as our list of families in need grows.

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What’s Next:

Family-to-Family is working to expand the on the ground coordination of connecting more donor families with the local food banks, community grocery store purchases and personalized delivery through schools and pick up of food donations with local food banks

Family-to-Family is seeking to expand the Victory Garden program to provide fresh and self sustaining food programs to the most impoverish communities they serve – working with community supported agricultural programs, local municipalities for vacant open space and schools is currently being explored.

Family-to-Family will be re-launching its website with a “KIVA” style online giving program that will be able to better measure the success of direct to donor programs around food deprived communities

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What we are seeking:

Family-to-Family is seeking to expand its relationship with Feeding America and Share Our Strength by delivering a partnership with an existing “donor to recipient” program that is proving to be innovative, collaborative and knowledgeable. The Family-to-Family existing “Army of Davids” is ready to roll-out a collaborative program that personalizes the issues of solving hunger in America.

Family-to-Family has numerous existing program that take the veil off the anonymity of hunger, connects individual donors with individuals who are food deprived and thereby creating an emotional connection with ongoing personalized solutions for all involved.

www.family-to-family.org