A simple question asked by a New Jersey moving company in 2009 has sparked an initiative capitalizing on the amount of food left behind in clients’ fridges in order to help increase supply to local food banks. Over 1,050 moving companies and 22 million pounds of food later, Adam Lowy—founder of Move for Hunger—has turned unwanted food items into enterprise-level charity.
Lowy said “When people move, they throw away a whole bunch of stuff: food, clothing, furniture, you name it. And what bothered us was the perfectly good, nonperishable food that was getting left behind in the pantry, or simply thrown in the trash. So we started by asking a very simple question: ‘Do you want to donate your food when you move?’” In the first month of Lowy’s idea, he managed to collect 300 pounds of food. He wondered if one moving company could make this kind of impact in their local community, what an entire network of moving companies could do.
That question, led to the creation of Move for Hunger, which links moving companies with food banks in their area, and these pairings with apartment offices, corporate housing, relocation management companies, real estate agents, and other entities to reach as many tenants and homeowners as possible about the impact they can make by donating their food before they change addresses.
Once one of these partners gets word that someone wants to move, Move for Hunger provides a pamphlet about local hunger problems, a large plastic bag, and a cardboard box—all to help people donate any food they don’t feel like bringing along with them. Then a local moving company will bring those packed-up pantry staples to a local food bank, helping ensure nothing gets wasted.
Hunger affects one in six American children, and it’s only gotten worse during the pandemic as government-mandated business closures have ravaged the economy, destroyed jobs, and disrupted supply chains. Move for Hunger operates across the USA and Canada. They try to hold special events—such as food drives and holiday-themed collections as well. Their February 2021 Spread the Love event received 16,000 meals donated across 300 separate food drives, and 20,000 pounds of peanut butter and jelly being used.
Rental property owners or managers, moving companies and real estate agents can help by signing up on the moveforhunger.org website and encouraging others to do so too. Anyone with an upcoming move can also find moving companies in their area on the website who will deliver their donated food. Move For Hunger’s mission is to mobilize the relocation industry to reduce food waste and fight hunger. Rescuing and donating meals for communities in need is so important because millions of people need help today.
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A GoFundMe page established by the son of one of the victims of the Atlanta spa shootings has garnered millions of dollars in donations from tens of thousands of people in just days. Hyun Jung Grant, 51, was one of the eight people killed when a gunman opened fire inside three Asian spas in the Atlanta area. Following the deadly incident, the victim’s son launched a crowdfunding page asking for $20,000 to pay for funeral costs and other expenses.
On the page he wrote “My mother, Hyun Jung Grant( maiden name Kim), was one of the victims of the shootings in Atlanta, Georgia at Gold Spa. This is something that should never happen to anyone. She was a single mother who dedicated her whole life to providing for my brother and I. It is only my brother and I in the United States. The rest of my family is in South Korea and are unable to come. She was one of my best friends and the strongest influence on who we are today. Losing her has put a new lens on my eyes on the amount of hate that exists in our world.
As much as I want to grieve and process the reality that she is gone, I have a younger brother to take care of and matters to resolve as a result of this tragedy. Frankly, I have no time to grieve for long. I will need to figure out the living situation for my brother and I for the next few months, possibly year. As of now I have been advised to move out of my current home within the end of March to save money and find a new place to live. My biggest priority right now is to put my mother to rest and plan out the funeral but due to some legal complications, I am unable to obtain my mother’s body. I don’t think I’ll be able to figure out this whole situation along with legal matters if given 2 weeks to move out. Any donation will be used as funds for basic living necessities for my brother and I such as food, bills, and other expenses. I wish to stay in my current home for at least one more month to sort everything out. Any amount would be forever appreciated. Please everyone just stay safe and check up on your friends and loved ones that may feel endangered”
The GoFundMe has received over $2.8 million dollars in donations from people around the world. Hyan has posted updates expressing how grateful he is for the support and acknowledged he has never had a good understanding of money but will only use the funds for pure necessity. He also said he can’t help but feel selfish for all the attention this has garnered and encouraged people to share the same care and kindness people have shown him to anyone that feels scared or unsure about the world we live in.
To date, no central fund had been created to aid families of the victims — a contrast with some other mass shootings where groups were set up to collect and distribute money to those directly affected. Several individual GoFundMe accounts have been set up for other victims of the shooting, all surpassing their goals but none to the extent of Hyun Jung Grant’s. Perhaps it’s because her young sons are now alone in the US amid the pandemic.
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Million Gardens Movement (MGM) is a charitable and educational initiative that hopes to put a garden in every household—whether that’s on a fire escape, in a window box, or as part of a community garden initiative—and fresh fruit and vegetables on every plate. The brain child of Frank Giustra and Elon Musk’s brother Kimbal, MGM puts Little Green Garden units in homes and classrooms for just a $10 donation.
The Little Green Gardens are ready-to-use fruit and vegetable garden beds—and over 5,000 of them have already been distributed. Kimbal Musk explains that each garden bed comes with a customized growing plan and online lessons and activities to support the growing of culturally relevant at-home veggie gardens.
If you’re a gardener, sign up to join the community. Donate $10 to give a garden to a family that can’t afford it, or that lives in a food desert, read and contribute to the blog, and then tell other gardeners about it. With thousands of gardeners already joining up with the movement, celebrities like Harrison Ford, Zooey Deschanel, Nicole Scherzinger, and Kimbal’s brother Elon—are helping spread the word.
We’ve been so humbled by the overwhelmingly positive response and the passion surrounding our mission,” says Frank Giustra. “When Warwick Saint was photographing gardening activists for our launch, activists like Salma Hayek and Jonathan Scott were asking us “What more can I do for the Movement? What else can I do to help get more people involved? That’s a real sign of how dedicated people are to making a difference.”
7,300 gardens in total have been started, including some done out-of-pocket, while 632 have gone into schools to teach kids about gardening and grow a new generation of gardening-savvy adults. “We’ve been able to deliver garden kits to Denver, Detroit, Memphis, and Indianapolis so far,” Giustra said. “We’re working to deliver 5,000 kits in Denver alone in April for Earth Month, and we’re working on delivery plans for cities after that drop. The most successful aspect of the Million Gardens Movement has been the continual growth of an online gardening community,” says Giustra. “Our Movement, just like gardening, is about developing our best aspects slowly and steadily as we grow in numbers towards one million gardeners. Seeing people donate is wonderful because they are helping others garden, and those who donate might also take up gardening.”
Food insecurity was a problem in America long before the pandemic began. One study from 2017 found that 5.6% of Americans don’t have adequate access to fresh food. The benefits of a home garden can significantly reduce these impacts—even something the size of the Little Green Gardens given out by MGM can help. “Our hope is to quickly expand to Canada this year with sights on Vancouver and Toronto,” says Musk. “We hope to expand to Mexico and beyond to make this a worldwide movement to encourage millions of people to grow their own food.”
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As of 2019, there were more than 35,000 homeless youth in the U.S., with an additional 550,000 young people between 18 and 24 experiencing homelessness for longer than a week. Most often this is a result of family conflict coupled with poverty, mental health, substance abuse, and other contributing factors. The pandemic hit the homeless youth especially hard, as already limited access to hygiene and shelter resources became further strained by social distancing measures and school closures.
Despite these dreary facts, a Minneapolis woman is determined to make a difference in her community. Carley Kammerer, the executive director of Wildflyer Coffee, provides skills training and support—as well as an income—for young people experiencing homelessness. When Kammerer first established Wildflyer, the organization employed four to six young people to sell simple pour-over and iced Dogwood Coffee drinks at local farmers’ markets each season. It now expanded to a brick and mortar location and is in the process of expanding both its coffee service and its training program.
Before starting Wildflyer Coffee, Kammerer had been working youth experiencing homelessness for about eight years in different capacities. Since Kammerer’s parents owned a coffee shop when she was growing up in Wisconsin and she had roughly 10 years of barista experience herself, she decided to start a coffee business to help address the problems she was seeing in the youth with whom she worked.
She spoke with other social workers and case managers to understand what was working and what wasn’t when homeless youth tried to get and maintain jobs, and she used their insights to develop Wildflyer’s six-month program. By offering extensive training and real-time coaching when issues on the job arise, the program is designed to help bridge the gap between life on the street and entry-level positions.
“I saw the same youth cycling through drop-in centers and outreach programs and there wasn’t a lot of traction to get them out of that cycle. Youth don’t always know how to do well at time management, customer service and dealing with managers professionally” Kammerer said.
Her goal was to run a business that would meet homeless youth where they are, offering flexibility and understanding while fostering the soft skills and customer service-focused development that would help them meet the demands of the job market. When she founded the café she said “What if we knew what we were getting into and planned ways to handle skill development rather than fire them?” When challenges arise, Kammerer and her team talk through them with the youth employees, focusing on causes and potential future solutions. With her social work background and contacts, she’s also able to connect youth to services and resources to help stabilize their situations.
Kammerer is now able to increase Wildflyer’s available employment hours from 200 per year to a minimum of 3,000 per year. She expects to employ roughly two six-month groups of 10 to 12 young people. Moving forward, Kammerer plans to focus on what she calls Phase Two of Wildflyer’s work: partnering with local businesses to hire its graduates. So far, another local business, Butter Bakery Café has come on board as the first Phase Two partner dedicated to hiring graduates with an understanding of their situation. Kammerer’s business had to adapt to the pandemic but those challenges haven’t seemed to deter her from making a difference in the lives of people in her community.
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Like many others around the country, Jose Villarruel has been struggling financially during the coronavirus pandemic. The 77 year old substitute teacher from Southern California saw his hours cut as schools around the country closed their doors to slow the spread of the virus starting in early 2020. When a former student, Steven Nava, 21, saw his former teacher in the parking lot of a senior center earlier in the month getting things out of his trunk, he gave him $300 and helped him find a hotel to stay for the night.
Nava said it took him a few days to work up the courage Villarruel after first seeing him but he insisted on giving his former teacher the money he had on him and it was Villarruel’s reaction that made him want to do more. “He gave me this big old smile and said, ‘Thank you so much” and as he was hugging me, I saw a little tear run down his face. Nava promised he’d help to get him out of his current situation.
Nava said ““He really stuck to me just because of the way he was so nice around his students,. He’d ask how your day would go, did you eat, just small little details like that. He’d be really, really funny when he took attendance.” Nava started a GoFundMe campaign for his former substitute teacher and thanks to a popular TikTok video Nava made, which had been viewed 1.7 million times, he was able to keep his promise.
In just six days, the campaign raised $27,000. Nava wrote on the GoFundMe page “Mr.V was a great funny and helpful educator and substitute teacher in the Fontana Unified School District. He’s struggled with getting back on his feet after the pandemic hit and has been living in his car ever since despite the brutal weather and living conditions. This fundraiser is to help him out financially and getting back to normal life. Any help is appreciated, thank you god bless.”
On March 11th, also Villarruel’s 77th birthday, Nava presented Villarruel with the $27,000 check generated from the donations. “From the bottom of my heart, I just had to resort to all of my self-control not to become sentimental about the whole thing and not to become nervous. It was extremely exciting, totally unexpected and great” Villarruel said.
In an emotional moment shared to TikTok, Nava presented Villarruel with the lifechanging check. Later, the two shared a hug. “My initial thought was, ‘Am I dreaming?’ I still can’t get over this experience,” Villarruel said of the surprise. And now, he plans to pay it forward. “The greatest feeling that I have right now is like an obligation that I need to do a lot for the world and the greatest feeling is I can do it and I’m going to find a way to do it,” he said.
Villarruel made the decision 8 years ago to live in his car because he was sending most of his income to his wife, children and extended family in Mexico, he said. . “I couldn’t possibly support my family and extended family in Mexico and rent an apartment here at the same time with the income that I can have.” Villarruel said. Villarruel, who was affectionately known as “Mr. V” by his students, resigned from teaching last spring after the district shifted to virtual learning. The necessary change made his situation worse as he used his pension to pay debt and survive during the pandemic.
Nava ended the original GoFundMe campaign but there were still people who wanted to help so he started a new one to “Keep Mr. V Moving Forward” and has raised $25,000 of the $30,000 goal so far. Thankfully-this chance encounter with a former student is bringing better days ahead for Mr.V.
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The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has left millions with food insecurity but good Samaritans like Doramise Moreau ensure that people in her community don’t go to bed hungry. The part-time janitor who lives in Miami has cooked over 1,000 meals a week for the hungry since the start of the pandemic. Moreau doesn’t have a vehicle so she walks or takes the bus to work and prepares the meals at the end of the week to feed between 1,000 – 1,500 people every Saturday.
Every Thursday and Friday, the 60 year old widow borrows her church’s truck to buy groceries. Notre Dame d’Haiti Catholic Church pays for the food, relying on donations. Moreau then cooks all day long preparing the meals singlehandedly, while church volunteers serve or deliver them to people in need. Sometimes cooking until past midnight, people ask if she’s exhausted but she says she is fueled by her faith and her passion for helping others encourages her to wake up early to start cooking.
Moreau said her desire to feed the hungry goes back to when she was a little girl in Haiti. She’d sneak food from her parents’ kitchen to give to those in need. Despite her mother’s fury, Moreau persisted because it bothered her so much seeing people in need.
Reginald Jean-Mary, a pastor at the church, said this isn’t Moreau’s first time lending a helping hand. She also sends pallets of food back monthly for her family and friends in Haiti. Since the start of the pandemic, every morning before work, Moreau lays out a table with hot teas and other homeopathic remedies for church staff, police, and community leaders to inhale and drink to help strengthen their immune system. “She takes care of everybody from A to Z. She’s a true servant. She goes beyond the scope of work to be a presence of hope and compassion for others,” Jean-Mary said.
Though she didn’t expect it, Moreau’s selfless deeds were rewarded by community leaders who nominated her to receive a brand new car. As part of a Miami, Florida anti-poverty initiative, community leaders nominate residents known for community service. The Toyota Corolla was purchased by the Martin Luther King Economic Development Corporation through a grant, and Moreau will only have to pay $125 monthly for three years before she can own it. It was just a small token of appreciation for a woman who does so much.
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In February, the Virginia-based disaster relief and humanitarian aid group, Mercy Chefs, reached the milestone of serving its 10 millionth meal. Founded after Hurricane Katrina, the nonprofit organization has served professionally prepared restaurant-quality meals to victims and first responders in 27 states and 10 countries, responding to more than 134 disasters.
Since the start of the Covid 19 pandemic in March 2020, they have distributed 7 million meals with the help of 10,000 community volunteers. The group uses coronavirus response distribution locations it has established across the US, where Mercy Chefs works with food distributors and volunteers to supplement the USDA Family Farmers Food Box Program with more meals.
Mercy Chefs has also deployed to locations in 2020 following natural disasters, including Hurricanes Hanna and Laura; and the recent tornado in Alabama. They have repeatedly returned to Panama City to serve those still affected by Hurricane Michael. Just after reaching their milestone, they headed to Dallas Texas when the call for help came as severe cold weather left millions without electricity, water or food.
They served thousands of hot meals to Texans during the unprecedented storms from a large mobile kitchen at Gateway Church North Fort Worth Campus. The team served both lunch and dinner to the community, distributing food from multiple locations. Mercy Chefs utilized several kitchens in order to prepare meals to distribute to citizens and also. They also have been working to provide clean drinking water to those who need it throughout Texas.
Founder Gary LeBlanc said he was driven to help with disaster relief on a broader scale when he volunteered in his hometown of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. “The devastation was so intense and widespread. I saw firsthand the incredible difference a hot meal could make. I was inspired to the point of distraction by the idea of serving high-quality food in a disaster area. Little did I know how far that distraction would lead and Mercy Chefs now has three mobile kitchens and two refrigerated trailers. “
LeBlanc founded the non-profit in 2006 to help with disaster relief and they are often one of the first organizations to arrive following a major weather event. His teams are capable of providing 15,000 meals daily to meet the needs of devastated communities. When the pandemic started Mercy Chefs delivered millions of meals through grocery box distribution in places like Texas, Florida, Virginia, Puerto Rico, Oklahoma and others. They are also working toward ways to support people in food insecure communities with job skills training, single mothers cooking classes, and budget recipe creation.
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One small business owner got a boost from the Late Night Show host Stephen Colbert and some heavyweight Hollywood talent on Super bowl Sunday. As Colbert explained on his show “These big companies aren’t the ones who need our support the most right now. Its small businesses out there who have been hurt the most in this pandemic. Of course a small business could never afford the millions of dollars it would cost to produce and run an ad on CBS tonight. So we decided to pick a small business and just give it an ad. A Colbert PSA encouraging the support of local businesses had already appeared during the game.
With that introduction, a commercial for North Carolina’s Foggy Pine Books began, with a voiceover from actor Sam Elliott and Oscar-winner Tom Hanks providing a priceless deadpan endorsement as well as a closing jingle, the ad also featured skydiving, edible books, footage of the actual bookstore and a spotlight on their drive through window service. It may be one of the most charming commercials in television history. “Foggy Pine Books has the best selection in all of Boone,” said Hanks, holding up some books. “They have books on all of my interests such as World War II, and also books about the events from 1939-45.”
They already had a GoFundMe campaign up seeking support that said: “Foggy Pine is owned by a woman named Mary Ruthless, who has poured her heart and soul into this establishment portraying her passion for books and her love for all people no matter their age, race, gender or whatever it may be; all are welcome there. But maybe not for long. This pandemic has hit small businesses hard and despite Mary’s efforts there has been minimal government aid. It’s up to individuals and communities of all sizes to work together to help those in need. And Foggy Pine is in need. Every community should have an inviting bookstore and Boone has one of the best and most welcoming indie bookstores on the entire east coast. It would be heartbreaking to let this award winning store slip away.”
Owner Mary Ruthless isn’t sure why or how their business was chosen. “It was kind of like winning the lottery. They wanted to feature a small business that had been hit hard by COVID and do what they could to promote them. I don’t know exactly what it was that caught their eye. I’m sure part of it was our drive-thru.” No matter how they were chosen, with a mandate to sell 1,350 books a month or face defeat, it was clear without some kind of change, the outlook for this small business looked pretty bleak.
“I did everything I could try to do to stay in business. There were several weeks I didn’t take a paycheck, I had to lay people off after our PPE ran out, but we made it through the holidays… I was really pleased with that, but winter is our slowest season and I was really concerned about whether or not we were going to make it through the season” Ruthless said.
Ruthless said when the store opened for business the Monday after the Super Bowl ad aired, there were 500 book orders waiting, and business, while it’s settled down a bit after the initial bump, remains brisk. “Weeks ago we were wondering how we were going to make it through winter and now I’m having to hire a couple of extra people to process all the extra orders” a grateful Ruthless said.
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As freezing temperatures gripped the US, Texas was left in crisis with thousands left without electricity and heat from an overwhelmed power grid and running water due to burst pipes. Plumbers in Houston have been overwhelmed since the storm wreaked havoc in many parts of the state. A New Jersey plumber saw “a call for help” from Texan plumbers on Facebook, who said they were being overwhelmed by 150 to 200 calls each day. He decided to help so he drove to Houston with a truck full of tools and got to work.
Andrew Mitchell, his wife Kisha Pinnock, and their 2-year-old son, and his apprentice, drove 22 hours from their home in Morristown, N.J., to fix burst pipes for residents of Houston. Before leaving the northeast, the couple bought $2,000 worth of plumbing supplies since they were scarce in Texas. The group arrived in Houston and their first repair was for Pinnock’s sister, who lives in Humble, Texas. She connected them with several neighbors who had been looking to hire plumbers. They quickly enlisted the services of Mitchell’s Plumbing & Heating.
“By the time we got here there were already about four or five jobs lined up from my sister, and we just hit those first and then everything after that has really just referrals from the initial customers, like their friends and family.” Kish Pinnock said once they arrived her husband has been working nonstop locating the damage in collapsed ceilings, frozen walls and – in one harrowing episode – working beside snake eggshells in a crawl space.
Among those relieved to find help was Dedrick Dock of Spring, Texas. He said he’d tried to get at least 15 plumbers out to his house before he heard about Mitchell’s Plumbing & Heating on social media from a friend’s neighbor. Dock and his family had been staying with relatives for more than a week because of a broken pipe in the garage. “We had to relocate for over a week because we needed to get someone out there,” he said. “And of course, with the plumbers here they were already overwhelmed with the work that was going on.”
The group had planned to return home after a week, but Mitchell decided to work until he ran out of material and is considering a return trip to the area if plumbers are still overwhelmed. “Last night, Andrew did not get back home until two in the morning and he was out of here by 07:30 this morning. He’s always been dedicated to his craft” Pinnock says. “A lot of the people we’ve helped were telling us they either can’t get a plumber on the phone or – if they do get one on the phone – the wait to be serviced is three to four weeks out, so they can’t have water during that entire time,” said Pinnock.
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With millions dependent on unemployment benefits and food bank lines reporting record numbers for turn out during food drops. The economic crisis set off by the pandemic has widened the chasm between the “haves” and the “have-nots” in the United States in new ways. The expanded rift has been accompanied by an outpouring of donations to local food banks, crowdfunding campaigns and other aid to financially devastated Americans.
The pandemic has shown that many people care about their neighbors and are willing to help. Amazon shareholder Mackenzie Scott’s $4 billion in charitable contributions, announced in December, may be the biggest. But there are plenty of Americans who are also chipping in, donating $10 or $20, some for the first time ever. About 70% of the donations made to campaigns on GoFundMe were under $50 this year, up from 40% in 2019.
Covid 19 Foundations have been established in every state in the US to help communities impacted by the pandemic. Donations to small and mid-sized charitable organizations were up 7.6% in the first nine months of 2020 over 2019. Charities received $2.47 billion in donations on Dec. 1, the Tuesday after Thanksgiving known as GivingTuesday, up 25% from 2019. Woodrow Rosenbaum, chief data officer for GivingTuesday said “People are giving like we’ve never seen before, what we have now is much more collective action.”
America’s Food Fund, started this year, raised over $44 million on GoFundMe, the largest campaign ever on the fundraising website. Long-time programs like the United States Post Office’s Operation Santa, which matches donors with needy families who send letters to a special North Pole address, report unprecedented support.
Across the globe, communities are raising funds for everything from Covid testing sites, necessities for those in need, food banks, helping small businesses, getting medical equipment for front line workers and even transport costs for farmers to get their harvest to hard hit areas hundreds of miles away. There are even people from different states banding together to help families facing eviction like The 1k Project.
GoFundMe itself even partnered with several foundations through their own COVID-19 Relief. They turn donations into grants for people and charities in need. Millions of people don’t know where their next meal will come from and people, even those who don’t have much themselves, are helping. Every donation, big or small, is helping others get through the pandemic.
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