Working with communities to end hunger
About Partners
|
Our Vision:
A hunger-free nation where every human being has the opportunity to live a healthy and productive life. Our program started as Hand to Hand in 1984, our mandate has been to forward the goal of ending hunger by going beyond the current feeding strategies of today, which we appreciate as a necessary safety net, to create and implement strategies that will effect the root causes of hunger and eliminate hunger as an issue all together. |
Map of United States
highlighting New England and
our home, Maine |
Our Mission:
|
Community volunteers at work
|
To work with communities to end persistent hunger by providing community leaders with educational programs, research and an expanding network of partnerships to support them in ending hunger in their community.
In 1997, at the time that we adopted our name as PARTNERS IN ENDING HUNGER, we began to seriously explore how hunger could be ended in the United States. Initially, we came up with three basic questions to answer:
1. What do we mean by ending hunger,how do we define it, and how do we measure it?
We began using the USDA’s Household Food Security Measure as a way to measure the extent of hunger and food insecurity. Created in 1995 by a group of scientists and research experts, this measuring tool provided what we needed to answer these questions. Using this measure we were also able to create a definition for what we mean by the “end of hunger".
2. What is the best arena for ending hunger or how do we frame this issue powerfully?
We believe the best arena for ending hunger is with and in communities.
Here’s why:
- Given that self-reliance is a key for ending hunger we know communities are an ideal place to build self-reliance. In fact communities already have the structures and organizations in place.
- People in communities are the experts on their community and are already experienced and practiced in resolving issues at the community level. Whether building a new school, creating a city park, or helping a family in need, people in communities are resolving issues all the time.
- Communities can be defined the way the people in that community wish to define themselves and communities are small enough that bigger problems are not as overwhelming. Having a hunger-free community benefits everyone in the community as a whole. People want a community that is safe and a good place for children to live. Ending hunger is a win-win issue that connects people and makes the whole community a better place to live.
3. How do we get there from here? What is the roadmap?
To answer these questions we have created our Hunger-Free Communities Program.For a roadmap, we provide communities with our Pathway For Ending Hunger. The Pathway provides specific direction and guidance for communities and yet is flexible enough to support groups to proceed at their own pace and to adapt the tools to what will work best in their own community.
Our Strategic Intent is a goal we have established that will leverage a greater goal - the end of hunger in the United States.
Our intention is to have enough communities use the Pathway and succeed in ending hunger so that other communities use their models to end hunger in their communities as well,creating a “tipping point" for ending hunger for the United States.
We estimate to reach a tipping point will take communities with a combined population of 20 million people. Our goal is to reach this level by the end of 2010.
back to top
