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You can find out what the best canned food to give and collect those from others. When you have the canned goods you can donate them to an organization that helps with ending hunger.

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Food insecurity is a very real problem in our country. Want to help? Here are eight simple things you can do to help fight hunger in your community. Sometimes we get so wrapped up in our own first-world food problems that we forget there are people in our own communities-including children who sit alongside our kids in the classroom-who worry about simply having enough food to eat on a daily basis. I'm so happy to have Clancy Harrison, a fellow registered dietitian and a passionate advocate for food justice-guest posting today about what we can do right now!
by Clancy Harrison, MS, RDN, FAND

Hunger is a major public health concern in the United States impacting nearly 50 million people and is especially crushing to children. Before I became the president of The Al Beech West Side Food Pantry, I had many misconceptions surrounding hunger and poverty in the United States. I thought hunger and poverty was associated with people living in chronic poverty. I was wrong.

The truth is, poverty is mostly caused by a temporary situation. Many people live a paycheck away from making the hard decision between electricity, medication, and gas for food. The loss of a family member, birth of a child, reduced wages, a natural disaster, and even the break down of a car can put a family over the edge.

Serving food pantry clients for over five years, I witness the real face of hunger daily. The real face of hunger looks like all of us. In the United States, hunger is an invisible epidemic because it is often associated with a normal weight instead of the stereotypically visualization of hunger, which includes children with bloated bellies, sunken eyes, and skinny limbs.

If we want to curb our nation's food insecurity epidemic, we must collectively change the way we view, treat, and talk about poverty in the United States.

8 Strategies to Fight Hunger in Your Community:
1| Organize a food sorting play date 2| Learn about the #GiveHealthy campaign
Call your local food pantry to determine the next food donation delivery date and time. Let the food pantry know you hope to organize a volunteer day for kids. Older kids can inspect the food for expired product and damaged goods. Younger kids can organize the food by product while the parents carry heavy items to storage.
3| Know the best canned foods to donate
#GiveHealthy uses technology so people can donate fresh fruits, fresh vegetables and other healthy food to local food pantries and organizations. To get involved and learn how it works, visit Give Healthy.

When donating food, know which foods are the most nourishing and non-perisable. Food pantries appreciate canned foods such as:
4| Donate garden surplus

canned tuna or salmon

canned chicken

canned beef

peanut butter

canned beans

canned fruits and vegetables that contain no added salt or sugar

Every vegetable counts. While one piece of produce seems small, it makes a big difference in someone's life. If everyone donated garden surplus to a local food pantry, there would be plenty of food to share. Storage space for fresh produce might not be available. Ask the food pantry when they distribute the food and drop of the produce off at that time.
5| Don't forget toiletries
8 things YOU can do to fight hunger in your community: Click To Tweet
6| Pass on your FREE plastic shopping bags
Food is always needed but toiletries are important and often overlooked. The best items to donate include: shampoo, soap, toothpaste, feminine hygiene products, diapers, and laundry detergent.

7| Share your passion in life!
When you are done shopping at the grocery store, instead of tossing out the plastic shopping bags, donate them to your local food pantry. Food pantries need bags to pack and distribute the food.

Reach out to your local food pantry and volunteer your interests and expertise. While it's great to have people available to pack food for client pick up, it's even better to have people with passion. Sample ideas and passion donations to the Al Beech Food Pantry include:

Student volunteers have played their instruments during food distribution. Our clients experience the sounds of flutes, guitars, and pianos while picking up their food orders.

A college student volunteer brought her gift of photography to help with the social media promotion of our FREE bi-weekly farmer's market.

A senior gentleman volunteer built us new shelves to ensure safety of our volunteers.

8| Transform thoughts through compassion
8 Things You Can Do To Fight Hunger In Your Community from @ClancyCHarrison Click To Tweet

Learn about hunger by listening to stories around you. If you have been on a food assistance program yourself, refer to it as a positive influence in your life. For example, if you participated in the National School Lunch Program, consider how it helped you succeed in school. Would you have been able to concentrate on your spelling test? Would you be where you are today if you did not have access to the program?
Clancy Cash Harrison MS, RDN, FAND is a Registered Dietitian, Author of Feeding Baby, Photos courtesy of Clancy Harrison TEDx Speaker, and Food Justice Advocate. Learn more on her website and follow her on Facebook
My mission is to decrease the stigma associated with food assistance programs in the hopes that more families will take advantage of programs such as food stamps and school nutrition programs. Food assistance programs give parents access to better food options and decrease the stress caused by the fear of running out of food.

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Fight Hunger In Your Community: Here are 8 Things YOU Can Do!

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Food insecurity is a very real problem in our country. Want to help? Here are eight simple things you can do to help fight hunger in your community. Sometimes we get so wrapped up in our own first-world food problems that we forget there are people in our own communities-including children who sit alongside our kids in the classroom-who worry about simply having enough food to eat on a daily basis.

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You can host a bake sale and donate all the proceeds to an organization that helps ending hunger.

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You can share information about hunger and its effects on social media

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Every dollar you donate is equal to 11 meals!

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Millions of Americans are facing hunger. We need to do more. Will you join me? Give to Feeding America today!

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You can let others know how much we need to end hunger and how they can participate.

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You can volunteer at a community farm to help grow produce. When you grow produce it is usually donated to local food pantries and distributed to those in need.

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More than 450,000 people in San Diego County are food insecure, having limited or uncertain availability of nutritious food. This means that roughly one in six San Diegans are not always certain where or how they will get their next meal. Here are ways that you can contribute to the fight against hunger in your community!

Download this guide: 7 Things You Can Do to Address Hunger in Your Community.

1. Volunteer your time:

...at a community farm. Much of the produce grown on the Farm at the Leichtag Foundation property in Encinitas is donated to local food pantries and distributed to those in need. Stay tuned for ways to volunteer on the Farm to help grow and harvest this produce.

...with a local gleaning group. Gleaning groups, such as CropSwapSanDiego, help pick fruit and vegetable crops that would otherwise never be picked and go to waste. Volunteering with a gleaning groups is fun way to make an impact while being outside and learning about local agriculture.

...at a food bank. Local food banks and pantries rely on volunteer labor to sort, bag, and distribute food. Contact the hunger relief organizations listed below for volunteer opportunities.

2. Reduce waste through recovery and donation.

Call a gleaning group to harvest your backyard fruits trees and donate the fruit to a local food bank.

Having a catered party? Figure out ahead of time where you can donate the inevitable leftover food. Work with your school or work cafeteria to make sure that unused food is donated to a food pantry. Many people don't know this and as a result are hesitant to donate their extra food. Contact Donate Don't Dump for ideas.

Individuals or businesses who donate food items to food pantries and food banks are protected from all liability under the Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act.

3. Host a food drive. While fresh produce and monetary donations are very important, food banks and pantries can make good use of canned or other shelf-stable foods. For example, most food pantries serve the homeless and busy single mothers, who require or appreciate ready-to-eat foods that can be consumed with little to no cooking. Consider having a food drive outside of the usual holiday season and asking participants to donate a few dollars as well, which agencies can use to purchase food at an exponential discount.

4. Donate money, rather than food. Food banks, food pantries, and other non-profit organizations that fight hunger depend on grants and donations. Because food banks purchase food in bulk and at discounted rates, a donation of one dollar can purchase $20 worth of food. If everyone who attends Sukkot donated one dollar, over 11,000 meals could be provided to men, women and children across San Diego County. Monetary donations to food banks are tax deductible. Please see the end of this document for donation ideas!

5. Help elect officials who care about hunger. Good policy can help to alleviate hunger and with increased advocacy hunger can be on the public agenda. Letters and phone calls to elected officials help remind them that the public is concerned about hunger issues. If you represent a non-profit hunger relief organization, consider joining the Hunger Action Network to learn about more ways that you and your organization can get involved in hunger advocacy.

6. Promote awareness among friends and family. Share this list with your friends and family. Instead of a regular dinner party, host a Hunger Banquet at your school or home. Have discussions about solutions to poverty and hunger issues with your friends. Help bring the issue of food insecurity into the mainstream.

7. Choose a career path that involves hunger. Non-profit workers, policy-makers, and researchers can address hunger issues every day. Even those in the private sector can make this cause a part of their careers. City planners and doctors also can focus on the needs of those that are food insecure.

To donate to and volunteer at local hunger relief organizations, visit the websites of following agencies:

Sign up for the Leichtag Foundation newsletter to stay connected and learn more ways to get involved!

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7 Things You Can Do to Address Hunger in Your Community - Leichtag Foundation

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Honoring the 7 year cycle of Shmita: More than 450,000 people in San Diego County are food insecure, having limited or uncertain availability of nutritious food. This means that roughly one in six San Diegans are not always certain where or how they will get their next meal.

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Starting a food drive is really good because you can ask your principal if you can run it at your school. If you run food drive at your school, you have to explain what the food drive is about and what they can donate. at the good thing about making at a school is that you can have everybody participate.

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Emergency food providers (food banks, food pantries and soup kitchens) can purchase and acquire food in bulk, which means that a dollar donated can go many times farther than a dollar spent on cans for a food drive. Cash donations also help pay the important but often overlooked overhead costs of running a food pantry or soup kitchen, such as transportation or utilities.

Still want to hold a food drive? Ask people to match each food item they donate with a dollar, or host a healthy food drive. Many people who depend on food pantries and soup kitchens have diabetes, high cholesterol or high blood pressure, so to maintain health, they need foods that are low in sugar, fat and salt. Take a look at SuperFood Drive's materials for hosting a healthy food drive, and be sure to ask the food pantry or soup kitchen what types of food or supplies they need the most. You won't know until you ask, and you may be surprised.

2. Advocate for federal nutrition programs.

Many people like to volunteer on Thanksgiving or Christmas because it feels good to help people in need, but food banks, food pantries and soup kitchens need dedicated volunteers year-round. Start a new tradition and sign up to help on a different day, like Arbor Day, or your birthday.

Many emergency food providers are in need of volunteers with specialized skills, such as accounting, social media or website design. If you have something unique to offer, talk to the organization to see how you can get involved.

4. Support grassroots solutions.

A greater understanding of the underlying causes and systems of hunger and poverty in America will better equip you to make a difference. Read a classic, like Sweet Charity by Janet Poppedieck or Nickeled and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich, or check out more recent publications, such as The American Way of Eating by Tracie McMillan or The Stop by Nick Saul and Andrea Curtis. Rather see a movie? Check out A Place at the Table.

6. Advocate for an increased minimum wage.

Share this article with friends and family so they can make a difference, too. And If you know someone who needs help finding food, you can refer them to WhyHunger's National Hunger Hotline (1-866-3 HUNGRY and 1-877-8 HAMBRE). Download National Hunger Hotline posters and hang them in places like libraries, schools and supermarkets, so hungry people in your community can find out how to access government nutrition programs and emergency food.

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Emergency food providers (food banks, food pantries and soup kitchens) can purchase and acquire food in bulk, which means that a dollar donated can go many times farther than a dollar spent on cans for a food drive.