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Together – let’s be the first city and province in Canada to stand up and say ‘We will not let one child go to bed hungry!’

In 2007, Corus Radio Winnipeg and Winnipeg Harvest began a province-wide fundraising initiative called ‘Hunger for Hope’ dedicated to ending child hunger in Manitoba; so that no child goes to bed hungry. They have raised nearly $1,000,000 dollars to date.

Corus Radio Winnipeg – CJOB 68, POWER 97 and 99.1 Fresh FM have recently made a long term commitment to Winnipeg Harvest to raise $100,000 a year to help eradicate child hunger in Winnipeg.

Winnipeg Harvest feeds approximately 39,000 individuals each week – half of them children. On a monthly basis, Winnipeg Harvest provides emergency baby formula to over 1600 babies under the age of one. Despite the generous food donations by individuals and businesses in Manitoba, there is never enough infant formula to meet the demand. As a result, Winnipeg Harvest has an annual cash operating cost of $100,000 designated strictly for the purchase of formula. Hunger for Hope covers 100% of this cost!
All donations over $100,000 will go toward an endowment fund to ensure that Hunger for Hope can reach its goal of “ending child Hunger in Manitoba”.
Each year with our Partners, Corus Radio Winnipeg- CJOB, POWER 97 and 99.1 Fresh FM donates over $250,000 in commercial airtime and websites exposure to promote Hunger for Hope and their fundraising initiatives.

The Statistics

• On average 1600 infants require emergency baby formula from Winnipeg Harvest each month.
• Winnipeg Harvest spends over $100,000 for baby food and formula a year.
• Manitoba has one of the worst child poverty rates. It has the second highest rate of child food bank users in Canada with 51% of food bank recipients being children
• In the last six years almost 40% of children have lived in poverty for at least one year
• An Aboriginal child under six years of age is three times as likely to live in poverty as a non-Aboriginal child. Among all Aboriginal children under six in Winnipeg, 68% or nearly 7 in 10 live in families below the LICO
• Many children of recent immigrants and refugees live in poverty. 1 in 3 children of recent immigrants live in poverty
• In Manitoba 69.4% of all children of low-income children live in families where at least one income earner has a full-time job all year
• One third of the families, experiencing hunger are often dual wage-earner families, the working poor
• Hunger for Hope distributes meals and snack food to 63 community programs, 38 daycares and 26 schools
• There are food banks in 7 universities/colleges including; U of M, U of W, RRCC, Yellowquill, Winnipeg Adult Education Centre, Horizon Learning Centre and Aboriginal Community Campus

In March 2010, Harvest fed over 29,000 children a month compared to 5500 ten years ago.

***The UN food program has set a date to end child hunger by 2015. Over 800 million kids in the world go hungry daily.

Many studies suggest that the years from conception to age six, are the most influential in the life cycle, effecting brain development, school readiness and health in later life.

Children living in poverty are at risk because:

• Babies born to low-income parents are twice as likely to be born with a low birth rate – which is the leading cause of infant death and illness in infancy and childhood.
• 60-90% of children from low income families suffer from early childhood tooth decay compared to 5-10% of children generally in North America. Tooth decay is painful and results in trouble sleeping, eating and learning.

The Hope

Hunger for Hope is working towards ending hunger for infants and children.

Our goals include:

1. Covering the annual operating expense for feeding babies and young children through Winnipeg Harvest.
   
   
2. Expanding programs where needed to include nutritional programs to families, day cares and schools. Hunger is more than not having an empty stomach. Hunger means not getting daily nutrition to lead a fully active, productive and healthy life.
   
   
3. Providing awareness to the unacceptable situation with babies, infants and young children going hungry in our city and province.
   
   
4. Creating an endowment fund with additional funds so by the year 2015 we can stand up and say, “No baby, infant, or child will ever go to bed hungry in Winnipeg and Manitoba!”