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Making Your Community Hunger-Free

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Would you like to make your community hunger-free?  Outreach can help you!

In the summer of 2014, Outreach Co-Founder Kathy Hamilton envisioned theHunger-Free Iowa Initiative (can be used in all states).  Outreach excels in bringing communities together at meal packaging events. The idea is to expand the impact of the events and make a communication and community engagement platform.

The program develops:

  1. Hunger Dialogue:  A community (or county) invites people from businesses, schools, civic organizations, faith based organizations, government agencies, and citizens together for a facilitated dialogue about the issue of hunger.  At that Hunger Dialogue, participants will engage in a mini-meal packaging event packaging Outreach *Macaroni & Cheese that will go to their local food bank.
  2. Creation of a Hunger-Free Community (or county) Leadership Team: Outreach assists with the training for a Leadership Team based on two leadership concepts:
    1. Adaptive versus Technical style of leadership based on Harvard’s model
    2. Collective Impact Model- based on Stanford University’s model
  3. Community(or county)-Wide Meal Packaging Fair
    1. More than just a meal packaging event, the meal packaging fair invites groups in the community to set up booths and information tables at the event to make others aware of resources and activities.

To help support this initiative, Outreach was granted 9 VISTA members to launch the Hunger-Free Iowa Initiative. VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) is part of the AmeriCorps initiative by the U.S. Government to engage volunteers in helping organizations like Outreach build capacity around issues of poverty and hunger.  The VISTA members have done amazing things in building this model, which is replicable in all states.  We will help you launch your Hunger-Free Initiative!

Jennifer Walters, Community Health Coordinator for Dallas County (Iowa) Public Health Nursing Services says: “We have truly enjoyed working with the Outreach Hunger Free Iowa Initiative. Through this partnership, Dallas County was able to bring a diverse group of community stakeholders together to discuss food insecurity in our local communities and learn about new leadership models and strategies for addressing the root causes of hunger. With assistance from Outreach, we have built new partnerships, streamlined communication, and established a Hunger Leadership Team. Dallas County is excited to move forward using the Collective Impact model to bring individual hunger relief efforts together, identify gaps, and avoid duplication of services to ensure a broader impact.”

We know that hunger can be reduced, but it requires a community just like the African proverb: “If you want to run fast; run alone. If you want to run far; run with others.”

For more information, contact The Outreach Program at: info@outreachprogram.org or by phone:

Office: 641-486-2550

Together, we make a difference.

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