This post is NOT sponsored. I was given media accreditation to attend the event however no compensation was provided. This is a cause I personally believe in and hope to start at the school that my girls attend.
We Scare Hunger was started in 1988 under the name Halloween for Hunger by Free The Children board member Dr. Jonathan White. What began as one small group of friends collecting cans on Halloween has grown into an international movement. In 2012, more than 10,000 students and individuals across the U.S. participated in We Scare Hunger, collecting more than 30,000 pounds of food to support food banks across the country. I wrote about it here. Last year, students from 180 schools across Minnesota alone collected over 160,000 lbs. of food through the We Scare Hunger campaign; ranking as the top state for food collections in 2013. Thousands of groups across Canada, the United States and the UK collected 1,677,254 pounds of food—all thanks to one innovative idea.
This year’s Minnesota We Scare Hunger campaign kicked off at Hopkins High School with the Co-Founder of Free The Children, Craig Kielburger, Nelson Mandela’s Grandson, Kweku Mandela, and The Vice President of General Mills/Executive Director of the General Mills Foundation, Ellen Goldberg Luger. Ellen presented We Scare Hunger with a donation large enough to fill a bus load of food on behalf of the campaign’s supporter Outnumber Hunger (a partnership between General Mills, Feeding America and Big Machine Label Group to help Feeding America secure millions of meals on behalf of local food banks). It was uplifting to see hundreds of students get excited about trick-or-treating for food donations!
I was honored to get one-on-one interviews with Craig, Kweku, and Ellen about their rolls in, and passion for, We Scare Hunger. Craig said that Free The Children supports more than 700 charitable causes but We Scare Hunger is the ‘most popular among kids” because it is fun and easy. Kweku was more than happy to support this campaign as it is a cause that “gets people on the ground” and “they can easily follow through with it.” I was surprised to hear that 83% of General Mills employees volunteer! Ellen and General Mills were a natural fit for supporting We Scare Hunger because both deal with food 🙂
I can not wait to start We Scare Hunger through my girls’ school. You too can step up and help scare away hunger this Halloween. For more information visit the We Scare Hunger website, enter your location (US, Canada, or UK) and get the resources you need to start in your school or community!
