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Service-based learning at the Food Bank this summer.
SNAP offers nutrition assistance to millions of eligible individuals and families across the country, allowing them to put healthy food on their tables.
If your New Year’s resolution is to help strengthen our community by volunteering your time and talents, The Food Bank has a number of opportunities available for you throughout the year, including a series of Family Volunteer Days continuing this weekend in partnership with Hilltown Families!
Support Hilltown Families: Vote for Hilltown Families as “Best Blog” in the Valley Advocate’s Best of the Valley Readers’ Poll for 2016!
You have an opportunity to take action and support our community. In partnership with Hilltown Families, The Food Bank will be hosting our January Family Volunteer Day on Saturday, January 16 from 9 – 11 a.m. All ages are welcome, as families are invited to help prepare food to be distributed to our neighbors in need across Western Massachusetts. Reservations are required .
You have an opportunity to take action and support our community. In partnership with Hilltown Families, The Food Bank will be hosting a special “Giving at Thanksgiving” Family Volunteer Day on Saturday, November 14 from 9 – 11 a.m. This will be a fun opportunity to learn about the issue of food insecurity in our region and the impact it has on the community. All ages are welcome, as families are invited to tour The Food Bank and help prepare food to be distributed to pantries and meal sites across Western Massachusetts.
In partnership with Hilltown Families, The Food Bank will be hosting a special Family Volunteer Day on Saturday, October 31 from 9 – 11:30am… join us!
There is more than enough food in America to feed every man, woman and child. Yet, here in Western Massachusetts, more than 235,000 people are at risk of hunger and health problems that come with not having enough nutritious food to eat. As individuals, charities, businesses and government, we all have a role to play in getting more food to people in need. Together, we can solve hunger and help keep our communities healthy and strong.
Volunteering together teaches children positive values, like kindness, empathy and tolerance, and opens up channels of communication between parent and child. Engaging children in community service can increase their participation as future volunteers, helping to create more resilient and sustainable communities.
In partnership with Hilltown Families, families are invited to attend a series of monthly volunteer sessions at The Food Bank of Western MA where they will help sort food, take part in educational activities, and learn how to take actions to help fight hunger. Our next Family Volunteer Day is Saturday, Sept 12!
You can take action to support our community during Hunger Action Month September is Hunger Action Month, a time when the Feeding America nationwide network of food banks unite and ask everyone to take action to fight hunger in their community. It is your opportunity to join a movement that has a real and lasting impact on our effort to feed more people than ever before. Hunger affects communities all across our… Read More
During the summer months of June, July and August, food pantries and meal sites across Western Mass. see a 45% increase in visits over the holiday season. Find out how your family can support The Food Bank this summer by volunteering together while learning about the issue of food insecurity in our region and the impact it has on the community.
Families have a unique opportunity to support The Food Bank this summer through our Family Volunteer Days! Through service-based learning, participants learn about nutrition and the importance of food security. Giving people access to fresh healthy food is an important objective we all should support. See how your family can help and how much impact you can make!
Your entire family can take the first steps towards supporting your community, and find out just how much fun volunteering can be. The Food Bank and Hilltown Families are holding a special Pot-Luck Breakfast Family Volunteer Day at our Hatfield facility on Saturday, May 9 from 9 – 11:30 a.m. Bring a favorite dish to share. You will have the opportunity to learn about hunger in our region, as well as helping to prepare food to be distributed to pantries and meal sites across Western Massachusetts. Pre-registration is required for this free community service event…
April is National Volunteer Month and there are countless GREAT reasons to volunteer with your family — meeting people, helping people, building community… The Food Bank of Western Mass & Hilltown Families Family Volunteer Day checks all those boxes and so much more. Read on and see how your family can help.
Currently, an estimated 50 million people across The United States are food insecure – a truly unsettling statistic. National Nutrition Month challenges us to take pause and consider the absolute fundamental importance of eating, and eating smartly. While wonderful organizations such as The Food Bank of Western Massachusetts have this issue on the front burner constantly, their very own Chris Wojcik outlines why we need to always be aware of food security and learn how we can do something to help. Hilltown Families is proud to partner with The Food Bank, hosting a very special community engaging volunteer day. Read on for more information.
The Food Bank of Western Massachusetts & Hilltown Families present Family Volunteer Days! Over the years, Hilltown Families has partnered with The Food Bank of Western Massachusetts in several ways, offering families in the region opportunities to engage in service-based learning while volunteering together as a family in support of food security in our region. We’ve organized a field trip and a couple of virtual food drives and told you how you… Read More
Food security is an important issue in Massachusetts with 1/5 kids classified as “food insecure.” It often happens when children are out of school that parents have financial difficulty making up the lost ground that was given by free school meals. Families can help in closing this summer meal gap by joining us at an intergenerational Family Volunteer event at The Food Bank of Massachusetts in Hatfield this summer.
Read on for more detailed information…
This holiday season, Hilltown Families is hosting a Virtual Holiday Food Drive in support of food security in our region! Every $1 donated through the Hilltown Families Virtual Holiday Food Drive equals $13 worth of food distributed to families in need (the equivalent of nearly 10 meals!). Please take a moment to participate in the Hilltown Families Virtual Holiday Food Drive, and consider organizing a food drive in your community too…
Food drives are just one of the many ways to help support those in need within your community, and food banks and survival centers are generally so easy to support and access that even teens and tweens can facilitate food drives at their schools or in their neighborhoods. Learn how you can host a food drive in your community…
Food Security in Summer Months in Western MA For children across America, the end of school means the end of book reports and spelling tests, and the end of school breakfast and lunch-their most reliable source of nutrition. In Western Massachusetts, 38,870 kids don’t always know where they will get their next meal. That’s one out of every five kids in the region. Across the country, more than 16 million children live… Read More
Screening of A Place at the Table at the Amherst Cinema 50 million people in the U.S.—one in five children—don’t know where their next meal is coming from, despite our having the means to provide nutritious, affordable food for all Americans. And of the 50 million facing hunger, 135,000 live right here in Western Massachusetts. A Place at the Table, a new film exploring the issue of hunger in America and uncovering… Read More
Fresh Fest: Farm and Food Film Festival at Images Cinema in Williamstown March 9th-10th, 2013 The Sustainable Food and Agriculture Program at Williams College and Images Cinema present Fresh Fest, a food and farm-themed film festival, Saturday, March 9 through Sunday, March 10. The festival consists of four features: Growing Hope Against Hunger, Edible City, More than Honey, and A Home Movie. Each film will have a local guest speaker in attendance…. Read More
Western Massachusetts Libraries Work to Banish Hunger In The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, residents of Panem, a future country based in the ruins of North America, struggle to survive while working to support the glamour and riches of the capital. Each year, residents of the poverty-stricken districts are forced to choose two children between the ages of 12 and 18, to participate in the Hunger Games, a brutal contest where the… Read More
Hilltown Families collaborated with The Food Bank of Western MA in compiling a list of kids books on the topic of food security/scarcity for their Youth Action Hunger program. We asked our readers to share their favorite children’s book that touches on the topics of hunger, soup kitchens, food banks, homelessness, etc. See what titles our readers had to recommended, both for children and adults…
Food Bank of Western MA Offers Food Resources for Families During Summer Months Working with more than 350 member agencies that make up the emergency food network in our region, The Food Bank of Western Massachusetts provides food to 15,000 people every week. Thirty-one percent of households who seek emergency food from those agencies have at least one working adult, but still do not earn enough to make ends meet. Nearly half… Read More
YAH! Curriculum Youth Against Hunger Education Take time this summer to learn about issues affecting your community as a family! For starters, resources from the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts’ Youth Against Hunger (YAH!) curriculum can be used to help kids learn about how issues of hunger, homelessness, and/or poverty are present within and affect members of their own communities. The curriculum, available on the food bank’s website, includes a wide variety… Read More
Youth Against Hunger (YAH!) Curriculum for Teaching About Hunger The Food Bank of Western Massachusetts provides food and resources for people all over the region, and involvement with the organization is a great service learning opportunity for kids. The Food Bank’s website includes a section for educators on ways to use involvement with the food bank to help kids learn about food insecurity and issues of inequality and socioeconomic status. On their website is a… Read More
The Food Bank of Western Massachusetts in Hatfield, MA writes: U.S. Senate leaders are currently considering legislation that would cut benefits available to struggling families through the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). This legislation has been proposed as part of the pending American Jobs, Closing Tax Loopholes and Preventing Outsourcing Act (H.R. 4213) (“extenders bill”). The proposed cuts to SNAP could reduce the amount of support that hungry families receive to… Read More
One in Six Young Children Live at Risk of Hunger in 26 U.S. States According to New Feeding America Report: More Than 3.5 Million Children Under the Age of Five Are Food Insecure One in six young children live on the brink of hunger in 26 states in the U.S., according to a new report issued today by Feeding America. The rate of food insecurity in young children is 33 percent higher… Read More
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