When you think about hunger, you are most probably imagining a starving child in a third-world country, or a line of homeless people waiting outside an inner-city kitchen. The harsh reality is that hunger is a vast issue in the USA. The Land of Opportunity is deemed a land of abundance and success, but yet 50 million, 17 million of which children, struggle to find their next meal. That means 1 out of 6 people suffer from hunger. It turns out that no one is a stranger to the today’s economic adversity.
Happily, there are organizations like Move for Hunger engaged in fighting hunger. As millions of Americans move yearly, there is a great number of food wasted as household carriers do not move food in the truck with rest of the consumers’ belongings. Through its network of movers, Move for Hunger delivers a lot of food items to food banks across the U.S. We reached executive director Adam Lowy for interview. Adam founded Move For Hunger in the summer of 2009. Here is what he shares about Move for Hunger mission and its up to date accomplishments.
M. Irwin: Tell us a bit about yourself?
A. Lowy: New Jersey native, Springsteen fan, and ASU Sun Devil for life. My passion for helping others is contagious. When I am not working, thinking, and talking about Move For Hunger, you can probably find me lying on the beach or sitting at the piano jamming with friends.
M. Irwin: Why Move for Hunger? How did you decide to found Move for Hunger?
A. Lowy: My family has owned a moving company for 90 years, dating back to my great grandfather. After years in the moving business, we became sick and tired seeing so much food wasted when people relocated. We began asking our customers if they’d like to donate their food on the move – it just seemed like the right thing to do. In one month’s time, we collected 300 lbs of food for our local food bank just by asking a question! After visiting my food bank, they told me that there were 125,000 people living in my county that didn’t have enough to eat. This statistic made me upset and angry. I had to act. Move For Hunger was born.
M. Irwin: What were the greatest challenges you faced when starting Move for Hunger?
A. Lowy: When I started, I figured EVERY moving company in the nation would want to do this! I started making phone calls and letting people know about our organization. Everyone hung up on me and didn’t want to talk to a charity. I quickly learned that cold calling people was not the way to grow an organization. Since then, we have established strong relationships with the relocation industry’s leaders, and have now grown to work with over 450 moving companies nationwide.
M. Irwin: How many moving companies are currently members in your organization?
A. Lowy: Over 475 movers.
M. Irwin: Are there any requirements regarding the membership?
A. Lowy: Every moving company must be part of a van line or a moving association. This ensures that those who are choosing from our list of movers to relocate are choosing quality moving companies. Our industry has a bad reputation because you only hear about bad moving experiences. Our movers are the good guys – even going out of their way to fight hunger in their communities!
M. Irwin: Can you tell us some numbers regarding the donations made so far?
A. Lowy: To date, Move For Hunger has delivered over 1,426,447 lbs of food – enough to provide over one million meals to those in need.
M. Irwin: What motivates your work at Move for Hunger?
A. Lowy: How a day at Move for Hunger usually goes? For me, it is so exciting to build this organization and grow it to new heights! Hunger is a solvable problem in this country – Move For Hunger is one piece to this solution.
M. Irwin: How do you see your organization changing in the next five years? Any specific goals?
A. Lowy: Move For Hunger continues to double it’s impact every year. We’d like to keep on this trend to be delivering millions of pounds of food to food banks each and every year. We hope to use our network to raise greater awareness about hunger as a year-round issue, while providing a simple solution to participate.
We wish Mr. Lowy best of luck with attracting even more movers in the fight against hunger as he is trying to make the world a better place. Here is a short video that explains how Move for Hunger started and how it changes the world:
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