Hudson Grande Senior Living Recognizes National Food Bank Day

To recognize National Food Bank Day on September 2nd, Hudson Grande Senior Living will be participating in a canned food drive with a goal of bringing awareness to those that go hungry. As the Culinary Director, I am honored to be a part of this important day, held annually on the first Friday in September.

John van Hengel is credited with starting the first food bank in 1967 to redistribute food and prevent the wastage of groceries by handing it out to the poor and hungry. National Food Bank Day is not only a reminder that no one should go to bed hungry, but also a day to honor those workers, volunteers, and food bank charities who work to distribute food year-around.

We chose to donate to the Akron-Canton Regional Food Bank for many reasons. In 2012, Feeding America named the Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank the Food Bank of the Year at its annual Network Summit in Detroit. The award is the highest recognition achievable by food banks and is given to the year’s most outstanding food bank of the 200 food banks across the nation in the Feeding America network. They are a goal-oriented company that leads the way in innovation for providing healthy, free food to our communities.

We will be donating their super six most needed items, which are boxed cereal, peanut butter, canned tuna, canned vegetables, canned beef stew, and canned soup.

I feel it is important to donate to your local food bank. It supports parents who lost their jobs or are working in jobs with low wages and struggle to put food on the table for their children. Donations help seniors trying to live on fixed incomes make decisions about whether to buy food or pay for necessary prescription medications. People in need face these types of decisions every day, and the Food Bank, with its network of hunger relief programs, is there to help. Food insecurity refers to the USDA’s measure of lack of regular access to nutritional food for an active and healthy life. Feeding America estimates the food insecurity rate in Summit County is 13.8% of the total population, that’s 74,960 individuals. The child food insecurity rate is 19.1%, or 21,800 children.

The immune system is your defense against diseases. That is why nutrition is so important, because it boosts your immune system and keeps it healthy. Malnutrition makes you more prone to chronic diseases. Good nutrition always effect’s your body’s energy and improves your general well-being.

In the US alone, about 42 million people struggle with food insecurity. Our team is hopeful we can make a positive impact on those numbers by supporting for our local food banks in honor of National Food Bank Day. We will be delivering our non-perishable items on September 2nd and look forward to sharing with you all what a difference we all can make when we give a little.