By the time this post goes live on my site I’ll be in the car heading to the airport for my flight to Tampa, Florida. I’ll land in Tampa around 5:00 PM this evening and I leave Tampa around 5:00 PM tomorrow evening. I’ll be there for just 24 hours – literally. Let’s just hope Hurricane Sandy doesn’t change course and head towards Florida. The idea of being in Florida during a hurricane doesn’t sound like fun. Of course being in NY and getting hit with a hurricane (which looks like it might happen) is no fun either.
I’m heading down to Tampa to attend a media event for ConAgra Food’s Child Hunger Ends Here campaign. If you follow my blog regularly you’ll recall that I was working with this campaign in the Spring.
The country band Little Big Town will be in town to help box up food to be distributed to “food insecure” families. What I mean by “food insecure” is that these families don’t know from one day to the next if they will have enough to eat.
There are many factors that can make a family food insecure. Most of the time it has to do with economics (loss of a job, loss of a parent…). But there are other reasons why a family can experience this too. When families are food insecure it means that children might not have anything to eat from one day to the next, or they might have very little to eat. Hunger can cause a lot of physical, emotional and educational problems for children. That is why it’s so important that we all come together, as one big family, and help put an end to hunger – especially hunger that is happening in your own backyard. I happen to live in an area where I’m surrounded by million dollar homes, yet statistics show that there are hundreds of children in my county that are food insecure.
Today is mostly for traveling. My trip doesn’t officially begin until tomorrow (Friday, October 26, 2012).
In the morning we’ll be visiting a local mobile pantry site to experience packaging and distributing groceries to families in need. This site usually distributes groceries to approximately 200 people. I have never done anything like this before so it will certainly be an experience. My family and I donate food to our local food bank as often as we can, but we never see the people who are receiving the foods that we donate. This is the first time that I’ll have the opportunity to meet the people who benefit from food pantry donations. I am not sure if I’ll be able to chat with anyone, but if the opportunity arises maybe I can ask a few questions to someone who is food insecure and find out what it’s really like. I’ll also take a few photos if possible. We’ll be busy helping out so I’m not sure how many photos I can take.
Later on in the day we’ll be meeting up with Feeding America Tampa Bay and the country band Little Big Town. Not only is it a media event to talk about the band’s involvement in the Child Hunger Ends Here campaign, but we’ll also be boxing up food to be given out to families in need. My photo opportunities might be very limited at that event, but I’ll do the best I can to snap a few pictures if possible. I might also get a few photos from the Associated Press photographer that will be on hand at the event that I can share with readers.
After the event I’ll go immediately to the airport, hop on the plane and head back to New York. By the time I get home it will be around 9:30 PM so chances are I won’t be blogging right away. I have plans on Saturday too. Most likely I’ll share my experiences on Sunday.
If you would like to learn more about the Child Hunger Ends Here campaign please visit www.ChildHungerEndsHere.com. You can also visit ConAgra Food’s Facebook page (www.Facebook.com/ConAgraFoods) and click on the Child Hunger Ends Here tab for more information.
You can also follow ConAgra Foods on Twitter (@ConAgraFoods) and follow the hashtag #ChildHunger.
I will have access to my e-mail so if you need to reach me please feel free to e-mail me. I am not bringing along my iPad or laptop (seems silly since it’s such a short trip and I’ll be busy the whole time). However I will have my phone and I will check e-mail often. My e-mail is SheScribes “at” Optonline “dot” net.
Wish me luck with my travels (and the weather!). I hope you all have a fabulous day!
Be sure to follow me on Facebook (www.Facebook.com/SheScribes) and Twitter (www.Twitter.com/She_Scribes). I’m going to do my best to post and tweet while I’m gone.
Kimberly
*I am working with ConAgra Food’sChild Hunger Ends Here campaign and I am being compensated for my time. The opinions expressed are my own and are not influenced in any way.
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