Food Lifeline honors hunger-relief work
Published 7:51 pm Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Food Lifeline, Washington’s largest hunger relief organization, honored the recipients of the 2009 Ending Hunger Awards at its 12th annual Bag Hunger Luncheon on Thursday, Sept. 17 at the Grand Hyatt in downtown Seattle. The event was co-emceed by celebrity chefs and Food Lifeline board members Tom Douglas and Thierry Rautureau.
In honor of Food Lifeline’s 30th anniversary, Independent Health and Human Services Consultant and Former U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Regional Director, James Whitfield, spoke alongside Food Lifeline President and CEO, Linda Nageotte.
Whitfield delivered a moving speech addressing the effects of physical hunger on an individual’s future and how, by supporting Food Lifeline’s mission to end hunger, we can work together to create change.
“As I’ve gotten older, I have learned that everyone is hungry for something. I bet there is some change, some good, in the world that, in your heart of hearts, you truly hunger for,” said Whitfield. “At this very second, the person who could make what you truly hunger for a reality might be too distracted by their empty belly to ever be able to play the role that they might otherwise play in the world. With Food Lifeline, we have the ability to say…never again.”
Ending Hunger Awards went to the following individuals/companies:
ŸOutstanding Volunteer Award – Church of Scientology
ŸOutstanding Individual Award – Kristin Maas, Director of Public Affairs at QFC
ŸOutstanding Foundation Donor Award – Bill &Melinda Gates Foundation
ŸOutstanding Food Donor Award – SeaShare
ŸRaising Hunger Awareness Award – The Miller|Hull Partnership
The Ending Hunger Awards are presented to individuals and companies that have made an effort to go above and beyond their traditional role to support Food Lifeline’s mission to end hunger. Awarded since 1998, the Ending Hunger Awards were presented for the first time exclusively at Bag Hunger in 2008. Among the recipients were Jim Harmon, Executive Director of SeaShare, and Scott Wolf of The Miller|Hull Partnership.
“SeaShare and Food Lifeline have a long history of working together to provide nutrition to the Western Washington food bank network,” said Jim Harmon, SeaShare. “Having an experienced distribution team at Food Lifeline allows SeaShare to focus on sourcing donations of high-protein seafood. We appreciate the work Food Lifeline does every day in our communities, and we look forward to future partnerships that will help feed hungry Americans.”
“We were pleased to be able to reach out to many of our colleagues and ask for their support of Food Lifeline through the annual Food Frenzy competition,” said Scott Wolf, Miller|Hull Partnership, the Challenging Firm in the design and construction sector for the 2009 Food Frenzy event. “Once people heard about the work that Food Lifeline does to address the incredible need in our communities, the response and financial support was overwhelming. We look forward to helping Food Lifeline continue to build on that enthusiasm in the design and construction community in the years to come.”
Food Lifeline is a local hunger relief organization, efficiently serving the Western Washington area by using 95 percent of revenue to directly feed hungry people. Last year the organization delivered more than 17 million meals to hungry people through its network of more than 300 neighborhood food banks, hot meal programs, shelters and other food providers. Food Lifeline is also a member of the national organization, Feeding America. For more information about Food Lifeline or to make a tax-deductible donation, log onto www.foodlifeline.org or call 206-545-6600.
Feeding America (formerly known as America’s Second Harvest—The Nation’s Food Bank Network) is the largest charitable domestic hunger-relief organization in the United States. Through its network of more than 200 member food banks, Feeding America annually provides assistance to more than 25 million people in need, including more than 9 million children and nearly 3 million seniors in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. For more information about Feeding America visit www.feedingamerica.org.
