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Plan to Skip Lunch on May 6 to Fight Hunger

  • Susan
  • April 27, 2009

Plan to Skip Lunch on May 6 to Fight HungerAlthough many of us routinely skip lunch when we’re working on a big project or have a looming deadline, New Yorkers are planning in advance to skip their mid-day meal on May 6 and donate their dollars to a good cause ” fighting hunger.  Skip Lunch Fight Hunger is the annual fundraising initiative by City Harvest, the world’s first food rescue organization.  The Skip Lunch Fight Hunger campaign asks individuals to donate what they would normally spend on lunch to help City Harvest feed the estimated 350,000 hungry children and their families in the New York City area.

So listen up, all you New Yorkers, former New Yorkers, future New Yorkers and New Yorker wannabes – this is the time to get with the program and do what New Yorkers do best:  help their fellow New Yorkers!  This isn’t a long-term commitment or even a large financial investment.  Skip Lunch Fight Hunger is merely asking for a donation equal to the cost of one lunch for one day.  How can you say no, especially when so many of your friends and neighbors have been victimized because of our weakened economy?

Conceived in 2002 by City Harvest board member Dana Cowin, (who also happens to be editor-in- chief of Food and Wine Magazine), Skip Lunch Fight Hunger set a goal of $600,000 for this year’s one-day fundraising effort.  “I wanted to think of a way, a grassroots way, to help hungry New Yorkers,”said Cowin, in a promotional video about this fundraising project.  “We do it in May, which is just before kids get out of school, so we’re trying to bridge that summer food gap”

Cowin went on to explain that while many school children receive subsidized lunches during the school year, this benefit isn’t available during the summer months; hence, the importance of helping keep food on their tables at home, for them and their families.

Last year, Skip Lunch Fight Hunger raised more than $500,000 from over 15,000 New Yorkers. The money helped feed more than 30,000 children and their entire families for the whole summer.

Here are ways your donation can help:

  • $10 can help feed seven children for a week
  • $20 can help feed three children for a month
  • $50 can help feed three children for an entire summer

Skip Lunch Fight Hunger has made the fundraiser a collaborative effort.  Individuals can either sign up to be team captains for their company or organization, or they can join a team already formed.  Starting or joining a team is easy and has perks; there are prizes and incentives for the teams that produce the most successful fundraising results.  You can get all the details by going to the Skip Lunch Fight Hunger Web page.

About City Harvest

Since 1982, City Harvest has been dedicated to ending hunger in New York City. This year, City Harvest will collect 23 million pounds of excess food from all segments of the food industry, including restaurants, grocers, corporate cafeterias, manufacturers and farms. This food is delivered, free of charge, to more than 600 community food programs throughout New York City.  Each week, City Harvest helps over 260,000 hungry New Yorkers find their next meal.

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