Charity Partners of The Hunger Site

The Hunger Site is proud to be partners with three leading charities that are working hard to end hunger and poverty. Mercy Corps , Feeding America , and Millennium Promise build on your efforts by providing food and resources to those suffering from hunger and poverty in the U.S. and around the world.

When you click every day, the money generated by our site sponsors goes directly to these outstanding organizations to further their efforts in the ongoing battle against hunger. Below is just a small example of how funds from your daily click are helping real people, both in the U.S. and worldwide.

An even wider variety of non-profit partners benefit from The Hunger Site's store. Read their stories!

Mercy Corps:

Aceh province, Indonesia

The wider world seems a long way from the rice paddies of Naga Umbang, a quiet village of 395 people backed by thrusting green mountains in Aceh province, at the tip of Indonesia's Sumatra island. But all you have to do is mention food and fuel prices and the winds of a global crisis come rushing in. It's top-of-mind for nearly everyone working these paddies, and even those who used to have a semblance of financial security aren't spared.

Zainbon is a 37-year-old rice farmer with a black baseball cap perched atop her pink headscarf. Her husband mans a desk as a temporary, low-level bureaucrat in the district transportation office nearby, but still they struggle to find the rupiahs each month to get by. She pulls at her scarf, explaining how they stretch six or seven dollars a day across the needs of cooking staples, school fees, fuel and now, in the fall planting season, fertilizer and rice seed. A Mercy Corps survey in the area recently found staple food prices climbing between ten and twenty-five percent, on top of fuel prices that jumped forty percent earlier this year.

"This is hugely important for us — the staples are rising and the salary isn't keeping pace," Zainbon says. "What about others whose husbands are just farming? They're struggling even worse."

This worldwide crisis is striking an area just starting to find its feet again after a vicious cycle of calamity. For decades, a rural separatist conflict kept many farmers out of their rice fields and fruit plantations for fear that they would be caught in the crossfire. Then in 2004, the Asian tsunami sent a wall of water up to thirty feet deep and flattened everything in the area, including the entire village of Naga Umbang.

With the houses now rebuilt, the rice paddies cleared of debris and new water buffalo roaming the yards, villagers are now teaming with Mercy Corps to strengthen their rice farming techniques and improve crop yields. And with food prices bearing down on locals, it couldn't come at a better time.

"We need to modernize," Zainbon said through a translator. "We're already thinking about when Mercy Corps leaves here, and this transfer of knowledge is one way we can build independence. Money from an NGO would go quickly, but knowledge and technology sticks in your mind."

The improved techniques are aimed at boosting incomes. Typically most of the rice harvest in villages like this goes to feed families. But if farmers in Naga Umbang can grow more efficiently, they will begin to see surplus rice from the same backbreaking labor they currently put into the season. And they will hopefully have the resolve to plant a second crop each year, which they can take to market in nearby cities.

That's the sort of security that the poor in Naga Umbang and around the world are seeking in these turbulent times.

"We need to pay attention to agriculture and go back to it," Zainbon said. "It's difficult if we just depend on income from government or other office jobs. But our prospects are better if we pay attention to the land and plant better crops."

Read more about Mercy Corps.

Feeding America:

Iowa, U.S.

Robin and Russ lived through flooding before, but nothing could have prepared them for the devastation left after the Midwest floods of 2008, which affected Iowa communities all long the Cedar River. The flooding began on a Sunday and nearly a day later, the river had reached its record crest washing out neighborhoods in its path and forcing families to evacuate their homes, like this family of six.

Robin and Russ could not believe their eyes when they returned to their neighborhood to find their recently re-modeled home of seventeen years submerged up to their kitchen counter tops in six feet of diesel drenched water. "Your entire life changes in hours," said Robin. "I never thought I would wake up and not be able to get into my home."

They lost everything from clothes, to towels, to pots and pans, totaling to $70,000 in damages. This was the first time the family ever needed food assistance. The food and emergency food stamps they received alleviated much of their worry about purchasing food to feed their family of six as they struggled to piece their life back together. Through the emergency shelter set up at a nearby school, the family felt a sense of security during a time full of uncertainty. "I've never had to say thank you so often," said Robin.

Read more about Feeding America.

Millennium Promise:

Ruhiira, Uganda:

Your clicks at The Hunger Site and shopping at The Hunger Site store helps Millennium Promise increase rural African incomes and improve nutrition by more than doubling agricultural yields in the villages where they work. Clicks and shopping fund improved varieties of garden and grain seeds and high-yielding fruit trees planted in Millennium Promise villages in Africa with part of the money from every click or purchase on site.

Over 40,000 people live in the Ruhiira Millennium Village, an area of subsistence farming in southwestern Uganda, near the town of Mbarara. This highland area has one long and one short rainy season. The Ruhiira cluster faces unique agricultural challenges. Historically a banana-producing community, the Ruhiira cluster is located in a vast area of rolling hills and valleys. After decades of deforestation for fuel wood use, top soil on the hill sides had been severely eroded and the soil depleted of nutrients. As a result, Millennium Villages project agricultural interventions in Ruhiira are interlinked with environmental interventions. The villagers are subsistence farmers that rely almost entirely on their crops for their food security and livelihood. Due to a convergence of environmental and financial factors, most farmers yielded less than one ton per hectare prior to the Millennium Villages project. These low yields did not produce sufficient food for most households, and many relied primarily on bananas for their source of nutrition, resulting in chronic malnutrition. Hunger was prevalent for several months of the year, resulting in increased illness, decreased attendance at schools and reduced productivity.

The Millennium Villages project addressed these challenges by training farming families to diversify to include higher-value crops, use veterinary and livestock programs to increase the number of cattle and goats in the community, and expand the reforestation and anti-soil erosion programs.

In an effort to reforest the area and halt soil erosion, the Millennium Villages project trained all of Ruhiira's farmers in soil conservation and environmental practices. Additionally, the Millennium Villages project and community raised more than 330,000 tree seedlings in both the local nursery and throughout the community area. An additional 9,500 fruit trees were provided to 200 households to support income generation and nutritional diversification. To reverse soil erosion, the Ruhiira Millennium Villages project team trained farmers to create gullies along the hillside, and in 2008, more than 93 kilometers of gullies were constructed.

Partners of The Hunger Site store

In addition to the money generated by your clicks, shoppers at The Hunger Site store have generated funds for other non-profit partners in addition to Mercy Corps and Feeding America. Many additional programs by these partners have been supported by extra donation days, when your purchase does even more than our everyday donation of cups of food, and our Gifts That Give More^TM program. 100% of your donation through these initiatives goes directly to the charity program specified. Here are some samples of their work—click to read more!

• Clean Water for Children - A Child's Right
• Beekeeping Training in Central America - Mercy Corps
• Feed an Orphan in India for a Month - Baal Dan
• Emergency Relief for the Crisis in Pakistan - Mercy Corps
• Help Build a Happy House in Haiti - Haitian Health Foundation
• For Burma! Help Survivors of Cyclone Nargis Rebuild - Foundation for the People of Burma
• Bicycles for Zambian Health Workers - World Bicycle Relief
• High-Efficiency Stoves for Darfur Refugees - Darfur Stoves
• Send Two Girls to School in Afghanistan - CAI

Clean Water for Children - A Child's Right

In 2008, your contributions to the Gifts That Give More^TM program underwrote the installation of one clean water system as well as construction for a clean water station at Angkor Hospital for Children in Siem Reap, Cambodia.

"The Cambodia project was, without question, our most successful project to date," says Eric Stowe, director of A Child's Right. "As well, the number of beneficiaries at AHC is spectacular. They see, on average, nearly 400 children per day. They had 107,000 admissions last year and all of those were accompanied by at least one to two family members. Within an hour of us opening up the outside public faucets, I counted at least fifteen families filling their water bottles, four doctors, two nurses, and several children. The entire hospital has switched over to using our water for all patients, patient families, and staff. They will now be filling bottled water on site and aside from the immeasurable health benefits, the hospital will save thousands every year on what they have been paying for bottled water!"

GreaterGood.org also contributed to A Child's Right's most recent project in Ethiopia. Your contributions matter!

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Beekeeping Training in Central America - Mercy Corps

Angela Quiix is not afraid of bees. In fact, she's embraced them for the benefits they bring to her family and community.

The 31-year-old mother of six helps raise bees in Xalache, a Mayan village in northern Guatemala. "I like it because it's easy and practical," she says as others pump smoke around her to quell the remaining bees in her hive. In her hands she holds the fruits of today's harvest: a honeycomb dripping with sweet, organic honey.

Last June, Mercy Corps showed Angela and 11 other women how to become beekeepers and supplied them with materials for 20 hives. The group responded by harvesting 5,000 Quetzales (about US$700) worth of honey in the first year.

The village consumed about 15 percent of the honey themselves, then bottled and sold the rest to restaurants and hotels in Coban, the regional capital. With the profits they purchased supplies for another 18 hives and stocked away money in the community's savings-and-loan cooperative, which helps community members buy livestock and increase their production of cardamom and corn.

"This project contributes to our family income," says Angela. "Hopefully it will contribute to the education of our children, too."

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Feed an Orphan in India for a Month - Baal Dan

"Thanks to the support of The Hunger Site's "Gifts that Give More" program which supports Baal Dan, we have been able to fully fund a feeding program for children CiniAsha's Halfway House, a Night Shelter and Short Stay Home in Calcutta, India. There are about 40 to 50 children aged between 5 and 18 years old who live at these shelters and they are street children or runaways. 100% of the funds provided to CiniAsha would go to the cost of food.

"I spent time with the children in December [...] and found them to be well cared for, living in clean conditions and absolutely adorable. The cost to feed a child in this program is only 33 Indian Rupees a day or $0.80 per day which provides 3 meals. Thanks to this grant from the Hunger Site, Baal Dan is able to provide food for these children for one whole year."

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Emergency Relief for the Crisis in Pakistan - Mercy Corps

Mercy Corps is distributing emergency supply kits to families forced from their homes and sheltering in makeshift settlements. Mercy Corps reports that the displaced families need considerable support in all areas — clothing, kitchen utensils, and sleeping items — but that food is the most critical. Most are living on handouts, and communities who are hosting them are having difficulty keeping their already meager food pantries stocked.

The number of people who have recently fled the violence now numbers 800,000, according to the Pakistan Army. Unicef reports that most are children.

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Help Build a Happy House in Haiti - Haitian Health Foundation

"I recently returned from Haiti where I had the opportunity to place plaques on some newly-constructed 'Happy Houses' and take some photographs...

"[Before,] These families were living in 'hovels' of cardboard and thatch. Your kindness and sharing has allowed us to build clean, healthy, cement block houses with tin roofs, windows, and doors. They are 'mansions' by comparison.

"Thank you again for giving each of these families a new home and providing them with a healthier, happier future."

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For Burma! Help Survivors of Cyclone Nargis Rebuild - Foundation for the People of Burma (update from disaster GTGM)

Last year, GreaterGood.org provided over $70,000 in donations to the Foundation for the People of Burma to help survivors of Cyclone Nargis. FPB continues to bring aid to survivors, supplying rice, water purification tablets, tarps and ropes for shelter, medicine, and sanitary supplies. They have also based medical teams in the delta, sending volunteers to remote villages with crucial medical supplies. And they are establishing "child spaces" in hard-hit communities to protect and nurture one of the most vulnerable populations affected by the storm — Burma's children.

"Our warmest thanks to The Hunger Site and GreaterGood.org for their rapid response and deep concern for the current plight of the people in Burma. We are impressed and grateful for their incredible mobilizing efforts which have resulted in food, water, shelter and healthcare for thousands of storm victims during the critical first twelve days after Cyclone Nargis. We have shared with our Burmese staff and friends news of your generosity and compassion. It truly makes a difference."

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Bicycles for Zambian Health Workers - World Bicycle Relief

Note: Please accept our sincere appreciation for your assistance promoting the Power of Bicycles in 2008. We had an amazing year, reaching more than 50,000 bicycles distributed to date and raising over 2.2 million dollars — none of this would be possible without the support of people like you... We have enclosed a note of gratitude from a Caregiver who received a bicycle as part of our healthcare initiative, Phinmore Cooper. His words really bring home the reality of how bicycles empower people's lives. Thank you!

From: Phinmore Cloongo

Caregiver, Shimukuni Area

Sub: Gratifications for the Bicycle

"Greetings to you all, back here I'm good with everyone in my family and friends. I'm writing to you all to show my gratitudes once more for the bicycle that has rendered me by your organization."

"The bicycle [has] really helped me in my routine community work as I visit various households... I have been able to find time to attend to my personal work after home visiting the OUCs and the chronically ill in the Community. Previously, it was not easy combining visiting OVC and the chronically ill households and working on my maize and cotton fields which is my source of livelihood. But thanks to World Bicycle Relief that I'm able to do this simultaneously."

"It is not only me that this gesture [has] changed the way things are happening, it [has] had positive impact on Rodrick's way of life as well. Rodrick has been able to do some business of selling fish using the bicycle to the surrounding communities. He has used the money from such proceeds to take [his] young brothers [back] to school and I would proudly mention here that the magnitude of food shortages have [been] reduced to certain levels, because he is able to make ends meet for his family a little bit easier now that he is mobile, such that he could make more sales per particular day."

"Looking forward to hear from you, bye for now."

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High-Efficiency Stoves for Darfur Refugees - Darfur Stoves

We've told the Darfur Stoves Project story by the numbers. Conflict in Darfur has claimed the lives of at least 300,000 people and created more than two million displaced persons within the region, many of whom live in large IDP camps throughout Darfur. Women spend seven hours, 3 to 5 times per week, searching for firewood for cooking, 16% of children under 5 are malnourished, 50% of families miss their meals for want of firewood and the Berkeley-Darfur Stove requires fewer than half the fuel required in traditional cooking methods.

But the most important number that tells our story is one. It only takes one person to purchase one stove and change the life of one woman. One.

The conflict in Darfur is a complex issue and solutions are not easy to come by, but one individual really can make a difference.

Collectively those individuals add up. Here are some other numbers to consider. It costs only $20 to get a stove into the hands of a Darfuri woman. Firewood costs $0.16/kg and the average family uses 5kg of firewood a day, so Darfuri women will save $146 per year in firewood costs. Her stove is guaranteed for five years which equates to a savings of over $700. That savings can translate into more time better food for her children, improving their health, and increased leisure time. Suddenly a simple stove has the power to do more than change lives and prevent risk of exposure to sexual assault and violence. It can help make better futures possible.

But it all starts with the number one. One person helping one other person. It is simple. It is powerful. It can change the world.

The Darfur Stoves Project has distributed 5,000 fuel-efficient stoves to date in Darfur. The Darfur Stoves Project and its partners plan to distribute at least 9,000 by the end of mid-2010.

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Send Two Girls to School in Afghanistan - Central Asia Institute

Since 2001, Central Asia Institute has supported twenty-four schools in Afghanistan and a total of 14,019 students. You have helped to make this possible.

Central Asia Institute has received a total of $457,000 from the GreaterGood Network since September 2006. 100% of these donations have been applied to Afghanistan program support. This includes school buildings, school supplies, teacher's salaries, books, equipment, repairs, maintenance, utilities, and anything related to ongoing support of our schools.

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Learn more about our projects with Mercy Corps and Feeding America!

Since 1979, Mercy Corps has provided $1.3 billion in assistance to people in 100 nations. Supported by headquarters offices in North America, Europe, and Asia, the agency's unified global programs employ 3,500 staff worldwide and reach nearly 16.4 million people in more than 35 countries. Mercy Corps has a four-star Charity Navigator rating, the highest distinction given to charities based on financial responsiveness and efficiency.

"Mercy Corps exists to alleviate suffering, poverty, and oppression by helping people build secure, productive and just communities."

—Mercy Corps

Our strategy is to work in countries in transition, where communities are recovering from disaster, conflict or economic collapse. Our experience demonstrates that turmoil and tragedy often create opportunities for lasting, positive change. We add our greatest value on the ground by supporting communities that can - and must - be the agents of their own change.

Over the last five years, more than 90% of Mercy Corps resources were allocated directly to programs that assist those in need. The agency uses funding to provide:

• Emergency relief services that assist people affected by conflict or disaster
• Sustainable economic development that integrates agriculture, health, housing and infrastructure, economic development, education and environment, and local management
• Civil society initiatives that promote citizen participation, accountability, conflict management, and the rule of law

All over the world, millions of innocent people are caught up in intolerable situations. Mercy Corps asserts that these are not today's victims, but rather tomorrow's heroes, who have the power to transform their own communities. The agency is currently involved in programs in Africa, Latin America, the Balkans, the Caucasus, Central, East and South Asia, the Middle East, and North America.

"We are awed by human resilience, and believe in the ability of all people to thrive, not just exist."

—Mercy Corps

How We Work: Programs & Topics

Agriculture: Mercy Corps works with families to ensure good crop yield, ever-improving farming techniques, and a fair price at local markets.

Children: Mercy Corps works with communities to shelter and nurture children through innovative education, health, and nutrition programs to plant the seeds for tomorrow's strong, vibrant societies.

Civil Society: Mercy Corps believes that responses to emergencies and development must, at their core, focus on strengthening the bonds between the public, private and civic sectors to build and improve peaceful coexistence, accountability, and participation.

Economic Development: Mercy Corps helps alleviate poverty by giving people the tools they need to build sustainable economies. A functioning business sector, access to good-paying jobs and the availability of affordable credit to spur entrepreneurship and employment are all necessary ingredients to building healthy, stable communities.

Education: Mercy Corps promotes education in many ways, from teaching livestock breeders in Lebanon less costly ways to grow feed and building temporary classrooms in Darfur's refugee camps, to constructing all-girls schools in the West Bank and showing residents in Central Asia ways to promote peace among neighbors.

"Education is the premise of progress, in every society, in every family."

—Kofi Annan, United Nations Secretary-General

Emergencies: Natural disasters can take homes and what little possessions families have. The outbreak of war and threat of violence can drive families from their homes. When the unthinkable happens, Mercy Corps delivers rapid, lifesaving aid to hard-hit communities. Mercy Corps was one of the first agencies to respond to the Indian Ocean tsunami, and rushed to the scene to help victims of Iran's Bam earthquakes and those devastated by Hurricane Katrina.

Health: Mercy Corps' work to build healthy communities, healthy families and healthy individuals is at the foundation of its vision for social change. By partnering with village health committees to government ministers, Mercy Corps helps build local infrastructure to improve maternal, newborn and child health and nutrition, combat infectious diseases including TB and HIV/AIDS, and provide physical and mental health care in emergencies.

HIV/AIDS: The spread of HIV/AIDS threatens to take millions more lives, reverse development gains in dozens of poor countries, and imperil progress on issues ranging from human rights to regional stability. From Central Asia to Central America, Mercy Corps is supporting people with HIV/AIDS in their fight for dignity, justice, and economic opportunity.

Hunger/Nutrition: Millions of families around the world experience hunger every day. Food shortages due to disaster, conflict, and economic collapse lead to malnutrition, disease, and death. Mercy Corps' food programs, whether responding to large-scale emergencies or ongoing poverty, concentrate on those who are most vulnerable: children, the elderly, pregnant women, and the homeless.

Microfinance: Offering financial services to people not served by traditional banks and lending institutions has been called "a weapon against poverty and hunger" by the United Nations and recognized as a strategy for peace by the Norwegian Nobel Committee. Mercy Corps-sponsored microfinance institutions, savings and credit cooperatives, loan guarantee programs, and bank lenders reach more than one million people in over a dozen countries.

Water: Water is essential for life, good health, and economic development; yet more than one billion people lack access to clean water. Each year, millions are embroiled in conflicts over its scarce availability. Mercy Corps' work fulfills the water needs of vulnerable populations, from piping drinking water to rural communities to solving resource-based conflicts, to ensuring that people have access to drinking water in the most devastating emergencies.

Women: Women are the foundation of every society. Yet for many women in the world's poorest regions, life is extraordinarily difficult. Through innovative health, agricultural, business, and education programs, Mercy Corps builds on the courage and resourcefulness of women to help them realize their potential and improve their families and communities.

For more information about Mercy Corps' work, visit these pages on The Hunger Site:

• World Hunger

Feeding America (formerly America's Second Harvest — The Nation's Food Bank Network)

www.feedingamerica.org

Feeding America is the United States' largest charitable hunger-relief organization, with a network of more than 200 member food banks and food-rescue organizations serving all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico, and has a four-star Charity Navigator rating.

Annually, Feeding America secures and distributes more than two billion pounds of donated food and grocery products:

• 529 million pounds from national product donors
• 478 million pounds from U.S. government programs
• 904 million pounds from local product donors
• 206 million pounds from purchase

"Our mission is to feed America's hungry through a nationwide network of member food banks and engage our country in the fight to end hunger."

— Feeding America

Founded in 1979, Feeding America supports approximately 50,000 local charitable agencies operating more than 94,000 programs; including food pantries, soup kitchens, emergency shelters, after-school programs, Kids Cafes, Community Kitchens, and BackPack Programs. Each year, Feeding America provides food assistance to more than 25 million low-income hungry people in the United States, including more than nine million children and nearly three million seniors.

Through its programs, Feeding America is able to provide:

• Nutritious fresh foods to hungry Americans
• Safe and nurturing places for children to have a meal
• Emergency food assistance to disaster victims
• A chance at self-sufficiency for adults trying to break the cycle of poverty and hunger

"Each year, 96 billion pounds of food are wasted in the United States."

—United States Department of Agriculture

How it works:

1. Donations are made. Feeding America gets food and financial donations from individuals and companies across the country.
2. Food is moved. Feeding America has more than 200 member food banks and food-rescue organizations nationwide that distribute food to local charitable agencies.
3. Food is distributed and stored. Every year, Feeding America network food banks and food-rescue organizations provide food to more than 50,000 local agencies.
4. Food reaches those in need. The local agencies give food to hungry people through more than 94,000 programs. More than 25 million Americans receive a meal through the Feeding America network annually.

How We Work: Programs

BackPack Program: There are children in America who rely on resources such as free or reduced-priced school lunch during the school year. The BackPack Program is designed to meet the needs of hungry children at times when other resources are not available, such as weekends and school vacations.

Community Kitchen: The Community Kitchen program is an innovative, exciting, and cost-efficient way to feed the hungry, train the unemployed, generate public support, create greater economies of scale, and challenge inaccurate stereotypes of hungry people. The program provides culinary job training to low-income men and women to prepare them for careers in the food service industry.

Disaster Relief: Since 1989, Feeding America has taken an active role in recovery efforts following major disasters and is a member of the National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (NVOAD). Feeding America mobilized in an unprecedented disaster response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

National Produce Program: To increase the Feeding America network's capacity to handle fresh foods, Feeding America has established the National Produce Program. This program offers a comprehensive array of services built around securing and distributing fresh produce throughout the Feeding America Network.

Kids Cafe: In 1993, Feeding America launched the national Kids Cafe program, which provides free meals and snacks to low-income children through a variety of existing community locations where children congregate, such as Boys and Girls Clubs, churches, and public schools. In addition, some Kids Cafe programs also offer a safe place where, under the supervision of trustworthy staff, a child can get involved in educational, recreational, and social activities that draw on existing community programs and often include family members. There are over 1,600 established Kids Cafes in operation.

Relief Fleet: Feeding America spends millions of dollars on interstate transportation each year. The cost of transportation often prohibits food banks and food-rescue organizations from being able to accept a food donation. Relief Fleet works to lower transportation costs by soliciting free or deeply discounted freight for donated loads for all Feeding America network members. In 2005, 11.5 million pounds or 846 total shipments of donated food were distributed free-of-charge to 186 food banks through Relief Fleet. Just one truckload of donated food can provide up to 27,000 meals for hungry Americans.

Seafood Initiative: Donations of protein-rich foods are relatively scarce and most in demand by food banks. The Seafood Initiative is a long-term partnership between the seafood industry and Feeding America, and generates new volumes of high-protein seafood for low-income families in communities across the country.

For more information about the work of Feeding America and domestic hunger, visit this page on The Hunger Site:

• Hunger in the U.S.