7 years, 78 selections, $3,506 in donations
Since February 2017, New Hampshire Hunger Solutions has been selected to benefit from the Hannaford Helps Fight Hunger Bag Program 78 times by 29 different Hannaford locations. In total, the organization has received over $3,500 in donations to further its mission of ending food insecurity in New Hampshire.
Tell us about New Hampshire Hunger Solutions.
New Hampshire Hunger Solutions is an advocacy organization working to end food insecurity, improve equitable access to nutritious food, and address hunger’s root causes for all New Hampshire residents. Initially, our organization focused on early childhood hunger and was called New Hampshire Kids Count.
When New Hampshire Kids Count dissolved, the board chair was still very passionate about eliminating childhood hunger in New Hampshire. So, she kept the organization going and changed the name to New Hampshire Hunger Solutions. We were a part-time organization for a few years, focusing on small projects.
In 2020, we hired Laura Milliken as our executive director. She did a landscape assessment of the work to address food insecurity in New Hampshire. She realized we weren’t doing enough to improve participation in federal nutrition programs in our state. We had a lot of direct service programs focusing on eliminating hunger, but we needed more system policy and system change. Through her work, we were able to find the funding we needed to become a full-time organization in April of 2021.
A large part of this funding was a grant from Hannaford through its Fuels Kids at School initiative. We used the grant to identify schools with a high need and work to help them with pantry development. We also worked with these schools to implement systems to feed more kids at school.
What services do you provide to the community?
We specialize in coalition development. New Hampshire Hunger Solutions currently supports and collaborates with 10 coalitions and councils across the state. We are working with local and regional partners to strengthen the network of coalitions so that we can work together to end hunger in the Granite State. Through this, we want to create system change and help communities access federal nutrition programs.
We are working with local and regional partners to strengthen the network of coalitions so that we can work together to end hunger in the Granite State.
In one of those coalitions, we’re working to implement the School Breakfast Challenge. Breakfast has a lot of positive health, education, and economic outcomes in the long run. It can even reduce food insecurity in adulthood.
New Hampshire is currently ranked 47th in the nation for school breakfast participation. As a state, we miss about 7,800 kids a day. The coalition aims to get schools thinking about offering breakfast after the bell, giving kids a second chance to get breakfast. Hannaford also recently gave us funding to carry out the School Breakfast Challenge.
Another thing we do through our coalition work is connect community health workers with low-capacity direct service organizations. For example, we connect with volunteer-organized pantries, libraries, and other social service programs. Community health workers will screen for hunger and refer people to the appropriate programs.
How has New Hampshire Hunger Solutions used the donations from the Hannaford Helps Fight Hunger Bag Program to further its mission?
A lot of our funds are restricted, but the funds from Hannaford are unrestricted dollars that allow us to do things like policy advocacy. In our policy advocacy work this year, we ensured that New Hampshire would offer the Summer Electronic Benefits Transfer Program (Summer EBT). This program ensures that families who are eligible for free school meals or who are on staff benefits can receive additional dollars over the summer months on an EBT card for meals. We also increased the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) eligibility from 130% to 200% of the poverty line. We’ve been able to change many policies through this work, reducing the administrative barrier to those programs.
Tell us a story about a program, service, or initiative the Hannaford Helps Fight Hunger Bag Program has supported.
We hired community consultants in our state to advise our policy work. We were working with one community consultant out of Portsmouth, New Hampshire. She had lived experience but also saw a lot of childhood hunger through her job as a food service staff worker at the local school district.
When she started working for us, she was able to go to the state legislative offices and provide testimony for what she saw. Her story was even published in the local newspaper.
When her son’s teacher saw the story, she cut it out to show her class. Our staff community consultant’s son was able to bring it home to his mom and say, “Mom, I got to talk about this at school today! I got to talk about the work you’re doing to end childhood hunger.
Have you noticed any changes in community awareness or support since becoming involved in the Hannaford Helps Fight Hunger Bag Program?
We always see more engagement. We post about the Fight Hunger Bag Program on our social media. The more we post, the more followers we get. All of this brings more awareness to hunger in New Hampshire. We try to leverage any opportunity we have to raise awareness about how it’s possible to eliminate hunger in the state. New Hampshire can solve hunger by implementing policy and system changes to connect more people to the resources they need.
We try to leverage any opportunity we have to raise awareness about how it’s possible to eliminate hunger in the state.
What advice would you give to other nonprofits participating in the Hannaford Helps Fight Hunger Bag Program?
I would tell them to use the tools that the Fight Hunger Bag Program provides to engage their local community. Let everyone know that by purchasing bags, they are able to support important nonprofit work.
I also want them to know that the dollars are pulled in from a lot of different places. Those dollars add up. It’s important to remember how every bit you can bring into your organization helps.
Interview with Jessica Gorhan, Social Impact and Development Director