Marking 30 years with a vision for the future

For the last few weeks, many of you have been taking part in meetings called "Vision 30/30."  We used these conversations to highlight Foodshare's 30 years of history in our work to end hunger, but more important to work on refining our goals for the future.

At tonight's annual meeting, we rolled out the goals and our Board of Directors noted the occassion with Vision 30/30 glasses for everyone!

Oh, yes, the goals themselves:

Marking 30 years of service – Launching a movement to end hunger

To create a hunger-free greater Hartford, our community will work together to:

Engage 30,000 people in a movement to end hunger in greater Hartford.

To end hunger we need a vibrant partnership of individuals and organizations.  An army of at least 30,000 caring, committed, passionate people can change the conversation about hunger by engaging in efforts that truly end hunger.

  

Ensure that everyone has enough by reducing the need for families to visit food pantries and community kitchens.

 Foodshare is able to meet about one-half of the need. Closing the gap in available meals, for each community, meets the need while keeping us focused on actually ending hunger.   We’ll keep maximizing donations of healthy food. But, without the ability to double in size, it’s critical that we help people become independent if we are to ensure that everyone has enough.

Increase by 20% the number of qualified families that are enrolled in the core nutrition programs: School Breakfast, Summer Food, & SNAP.

These nutrition programs provide the majority of the food that hungry people receive, with remarkable efficiency. Yet, many families, including those with young children, do not receive these meals that they need and deserve.  Connecticut is a small state, with plenty innovation: we should be able to figure out how to make these kid-centric programs the best in the nation!