Wanted: Champions for the Hunger Pledge
On Thursday, we will launch PledgeToEndHunger.com, a website designed to shine a bright light on the very real problem of childhood hunger in America.
This website is a joint effort of Tyson Foods, Share Our Strength, Hum. Minds at Work., Kompolt, and MediaSauce. It is designed to make it easy for people to do something meaningful in the short-term and create a dialogue about solving the root issues.
Harnessing the Excitement of SXSW ‘09
With thousands of highly connected people converging later this month for South by Southwest 2009 (SXSW ‘09) in Austin, Texas, we plan to harness everyone’s excitement to help deliver a Tyson semi-trailer truck full of food products to the Capital Area Food Bank of Texas. This will provide 140,000 meals for children in Austin.
One Click Feeds 140 Kids
By simply signing an online pledge to share the website with others, volunteer, and/or give, you will trigger a 35 lb food donation from Tyson. That means every person who joins the movement will help feed 140 children. With 1,000 people taking the pledge, we can make sure the Tyson semi-trailer will arrive in Austin during the SXSW ’09 interactive festival.
Join the Wall of Champions
We are seeking individuals, corporations, and non-profit organizations to help promote this website and help us obtain at least 1,000 pledges. Our national co-captains are Chris Brogan and Beth Kanter.
When the website is launched, it will include a Wall of Champions that lists every individual, corporation, and non-profit helping us promote the Hunger Pledge. To become a Champion, all you need to do is:
- Sign the Hunger Pledge
- Write a blog post (if you have one) endorsing the Hunger Pledge
- Encourage others to join you
How This Can Help Your Community, Too
If we are successful in surpassing 1,000 pledges, Tyson has agreed to send up to two more truckloads of food to the states who generate the most pledges. So by helping us send a semi-trailer truck to Austin, you might be able to get one sent to your home state, too.
Four Ways to Let Me Know “I Want to Be a Champion!”
- Send me an email – scott.henderson@mediasauce.com
- Send me an @ reply or DM on Twitter – @scottyhendo
- Follow @HungerPledge on Twitter and send us an @ reply or DM
- Leave a comment on this post
Childhood Hunger in America is Real
More than 12.4 million children are going hungry right here in the US. That’s 1 out of 6. Chances are you know at least one of them. With an economy that threatens to force those numbers upward, significant steps must be made to stem the tide. We hope you join us!
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
March 1st, 2009 at 5:07 am
Count me in! (added by Mobile using Mippin)
March 1st, 2009 at 8:52 am
I love what Tyson Foods does for the hungry! I will retweet and retweet on twitter!
March 1st, 2009 at 1:12 pm
I look forward to spreading the word about this and pledging to end hunger.
March 1st, 2009 at 1:55 pm
Wow, what a great initial response! In addition to those already listed, here is everyone who have agreed to serve as Champions for the Hunger Pledge:
Lisa Goddard, Capital Area Food Bank – @lisa_goddard
David Armano, CriticalMass – @armano
Connie Reece, Every Dot Connects – @conniereece
Mike Chapman, Social Media Club Austin – @mikechapman
Jason Crouch, Austin Texas Homes – @jasoncrouch
Caryn Brown – @carynbrown
Lotay Yang, Black Card Circle – @lotay
Joe Waters, Boston Medical Center – @joewaters
John Haydon, CorporateDollar.org – @johnhaydon
Mike Hollywood, Cone – @mikehollywood
Geoff Livingston, Livingston Commuications – @geoffliving
Peter Corbett – @corbett3000
John Andrews and Wal-Mart’s Elevenmoms group
Lawrence Liu, Telligent – @lliu
Casey Moore – @mooshinindy
Angie Six – @katydid6
Warren Sukernek, Radian6 – @warrenss
Bob Angus, VeriSign- @bobangus
Matt Ceniceros, FedEx – @mattceni
Dave Knox, Procter & Gamble – @daveknox
KyNam Doan – @KyNamDoan
John Cass – @johncass
Ben Kunz, Mediassociates – @benkunz
Kris Colvin, design-for-users.com – @KrisColvin
Brian Powell, thegoodconcepts.com – @GoodConcepts
Steve Garfield – @stevegarfield
Robert Collins, SHIFT Communications – @robertcollins
Steven Howard, Screen5ive – @stmhoward
Nicole de Beaufort , Fourth Sector Consulting – @NicoledeB
Gennefer Snowfield, Acclimedia – @acclimedia
Andy Sernovitz, GasPedal – @sernovitz
Philip Nieman, GasPedal – @nieman
Steven Groves & Lon Safko, co-founders Social Media Bible – @stevengroves @lonsafko
Shonali Burke – @shonali
Kyle Lacy, Brandswag – @kyleplacy
Want to add your name? Did we miss you? Please let us know with a comment.
March 1st, 2009 at 2:05 pm
I don’t have a blog (yet!) but would love to help spread the word on twitter (@DeirdreReid) and facebook.
March 1st, 2009 at 7:17 pm
Count me in! FG SQUARED – @steve_golab
March 1st, 2009 at 8:35 pm
[...] weekend I met Scott Henderson from Mediasauce over the phone and learned about a great new idea to help with the problem of hunger. As a [...]
March 2nd, 2009 at 12:51 pm
“I Want to Be a Champion!” @allenkelly
March 3rd, 2009 at 3:57 am
I am too excited for this
Working on that post now! ~KyNam
March 3rd, 2009 at 10:40 am
Scott, we’re in! Wonder if we can get a logo on our website… hmmm…
March 3rd, 2009 at 11:03 am
[...] Scott Henderson at mediasauce is being joined by Chris Brogan, Beth Kanter and now me to promote an end to childhood hunger in the United States. This is not the childhood hunger where your (well, my…) daughter gets up late and misses breakfast on her way out the door to school, this is a persistent condition that children are being malnourished by conditions beyond the control of the adults in their lives. It might be the economy (easy to blame), might be personal choice of parents or caretakers that ends up impacting the kids (drug or alcohol use) but the abundance of food on the planet that is not reaching our kids can be remedied. [...]
March 3rd, 2009 at 9:20 pm
Scott, this is great! I don’t have a blog, but I will do what I can to promote this. Can’t wait for the site to launch…!
March 4th, 2009 at 9:55 am
This is right up my alley! We have already tweeted the early info to our followers (@feedindy) and will keep everyone updated on our website when Hunger Pledge launches tomorrow.
March 4th, 2009 at 10:28 am
Scotty,
I’m in like Flynn. Blog post going up Thursday and will HAPPILY push my organization to support. Awesome job.
March 4th, 2009 at 12:47 pm
Here are a couple more, Scott.
Kathy Mandelstein says:
March 1, 2009 at 7:49 pm
@katmandelstein
Cynthia Baker says:
March 1, 2009 at 9:34 pm
What a great campaign! Count me in – my twitter handle is @CynthiaBaker
March 4th, 2009 at 6:02 pm
Hey there Scott.
You know me and my team are on board. Ready to make a difference in March
March 5th, 2009 at 10:20 am
[...] again, you see this time Tyson chicken will be donating a truckload of food to Austin, TX and to whichever other state generates the most pledges. I’m talking to you Indiana. (And everyone else in the country who wants to claim they live [...]
March 5th, 2009 at 12:09 pm
[...] “Wanted: Champions for the Hunger Pledge,” by Scott Henderson If you have enjoyed this post, please subscribe to my RSS feed! [...]
March 5th, 2009 at 1:42 pm
When I was a student at UT Austin (just after Michael Dell quit school and during the very first year of SXSW)I organized a Trick Or Treat to Help Austin Eat campaign. We collected a ton of food-literally, but that pales in comparison to this effort.
Kudos to all involved. This is an impressive effort on so many levels. Off to tweet.
@kimmoldofsky
March 6th, 2009 at 8:41 pm
[...] 1,000 people pledge to do something about ending kid’s hunger. Here’s some more details from a blog post that my boy ScottyHendo whipped up: One Click Feeds 140 Kids By simply signing an online pledge to [...]
March 9th, 2009 at 11:30 pm
Of course I’ll post to the blog, Twitter, whatever I can. I can’t wait to see those trucks pull up. Thanks for doing this. @gcmag