Jim Tomanek introduced our speaker of the day, Tiffany Jones.  Tiffany graduated from UN-O with a BS Degree in Speech Communication,  worked a year of service with AmeriCorps in Baltimore, and worked at Boys Town as an Assistant Family Teacher before joining Hunger Free Heartland.  According to their flyer, Hunger Free Heartland serves as the backbone organization leading the collective impact effort to decrease food insecurity, food insufficiency, and maladaptive hunger coping behaviors in households with children in the Nebraska Area. HFH does this by convening organizations and people together to build community buy-in and bring the issue of food insecurity to the fore front of the Nebraska Landscape.

 

According to Tiffany, in Nebraska 1 in 5 children and 1 in 7 adults are food insecure.  The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as the Food Stamp Program, provides food-purchasing assistance for low- and no-income people living in the U.S.  Nationally in 2014, SNAP lifted 4.7 million Americans, including 2.1 million children out of poverty.

 

Accessing and affording healthy foods can be a struggle in many communities. In some areas of Nebraska, a grocery store may not be within walking distance, causing families to depend on city transportation, their own vehicles or even friends to get to a store for food. The lack of accessible grocery stores in an area is known as a food desert. Many children, (13 %)  don't know where their next meal is coming from.

 

HFH works with organizations to fight to end childhood hunger, by bringing together partners that cover multiple disciplines to address the root causes of childhood food insecurity.  HFH works heavily with the public school system across Nebraska as well as food pantries, food banks, the dairy council, government entities, urban gardeners, foundations, corporations, community and faith-based organizations and anyone who has a passion to end hunger for children.