Fight Hunger, Spark Change Discussion Comes to Phoenix.

One afternoon in early April, neighbors, community leaders, city officials, chefs, and influencers gathered around a lovely table in the 19 North community of Phoenix. It was a collaboration of many different organizations and people coming together to talk about hunger issues in Phoenix. To get the community talking. Sharing of ideas.

One in eight people battle hunger in America. That’s 41 million people. Almost 13 million children.

Walmart and Nextdoor partner to bring the fight hunger discussion locally

Walmart kicked off their “Fight Hunger. Spark Change” campaign this month asking customers to support food banks nationwide through Feeding America. In its 5th year, this year’s campaign goal was raised to 200 million meals. Walmart started the campaign with a 1.5 million donation to Feeding America and will add up to another 1.5 million based on the #FightHunger social media engagement campaign (for details see how you can help at the bottom of the post).

Nextdoor is a social media network in 170,000 neighborhoods nationwide. Walmart and Nextdoor have partnered to bring the discussion locally and Phoenix was the second stop. Community leaders, city officials, local chefs, neighbors, Walmart representatives, Nextdoor, Real Simple editor and members of St. Marys Foodbank were invited to come together to start the discussion. I was honored, as a local food community influencer, to be invited to participate.

Real Simple joined the project as the media partner.

Feeding America is the nationwide organization that includes over 200 food banks. Locally that is St. Mary’s Food Bank Alliance. Did you know St. Mary’s Food Bank was the first food bank worldwide?

19 North

NextDoor reached out to the community about where to host the event in Phoenix and asked for NextDoor members to vote. 19 North won. 19 North is the community that resides between Bethany and Dunlap, 15th Ave to 23rd Ave. Founded by Shannon McBride, it was founded to unite the community.

Every business thrives, every student succeeds, and every neighborhood is safe.

19North is doing a lot to bring the community together and make it a better community for everyone. Some of their projects include hosting monthly blocks parties, planning collaborative trash pickups and being very involved with the city master planning for the neighborhood.

Gather Around the Table, Get the Conversation Started

The Fight Hunger Spark Change neighborhood events are hosted around a table. Not just any table, but a Neighbor’s Table. Neighbor’s table was created by Sarah Harmeyer who had a vision of creating a large table to bring people together. Two of these gorgeous tables were donated to host our community discussion.

The community of 19North has been working on a community garden. Right now it is a dirt field but irrigation is coming soon. And after that gardens that will flourish tended to by members of the community. The table will be moved to the garden with hopes of hosting classes about gardening and eating healthy. Education is a huge part in fighting hunger issues. Teaching about fresh ingredients and how to use them to feed your family.

Sarah Harmeyer, Neighbor’s Table and Shannon McBride, 19 North

Food. Delicious food. Some of the best conversations are had while sharing a wonderful meal with others.

Later in the day, a Block Party was hosted to bring more of the community together.

What you can do to help fight hunger

As part of Walmart’s Fight Hunger. Spark Change campaign they have created a few ways you can get involved:

Purchase Product: For every participating product purchased at U.S. and Puerto Rico
Walmart stores or on Walmart.com from April 2 – April 30, 2018, the supplier will
donate the equivalent of one meal ($0.10) on behalf of a Feeding America member food
bank, up to applicable limits. Participating suppliers represent some of the nation’s
leading food companies: General Mills, The Coca-Cola Company, Kellogg, Kraft
Heinz, PepsiCo/Frito-Lay/Quaker, Bush Brothers, Clorox Sales Company, Conagra,
Motts, Unilever, Maruchan, Pinnacle Foods, Post, and JM Smucker.
Donate money to your local Feeding America food bank at participating Walmart
stores in the U.S. and Puerto Rico. Donations can be made at the register to local
Feeding America food banks in increments of $1, $2, $5 or an amount chosen by the
customer.
Make an online act of support: For every traceable post of campaign content with
#FightHunger on Instagram and for every traceable share or retweet on Facebook and
Twitter of campaign content, Walmart will donate $10.00 to Feeding America and for
every click on the support button on the program website, Walmart will donate $1.00 to
Feeding America
Use the Walmart Credit Card: Synchrony Bank will donate the monetary equivalent of
one meal for each Walmart Credit Card transaction made at Walmart stores and on
Walmart.com during the campaign, up to $750,000.