Food insecurity, or the state of being without reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, nutritious food in order to live a healthy, active life, affects millions of people every day. Individuals and families that are affected need to depend and rely upon local food pantries and organizations to supplement meals to afford daily expenses.
In focus: Food insecurity in our communities
There is no single face of food insecurity, as it impacts every demographic, but it occurs most among the following populations: Seniors, children, African Americans, Latin and Rural communities. Food insecurity can affect our neighbors, our co-workers and our family members and friends. Many people with regular income are one layoff, tragedy or natural disaster away from needing food assistance.
Some facts about food insecurity:
- 1 in 8 Americans (more than 38 million people, including 12 million children) are classified as being food insecure.
- Residents are more at risk for food insecurity in neighborhoods where transportation options are limited, the travel distance to stores is greater and where there are fewer supermarkets
- Food insecurity does not exist in isolation, as low-income families are affected by multiple, overlapping issues like lack of affordable housing, social isolation, economic/social disadvantages resulting from structural racism, chronic or acute health problems, high medical costs and low wages.
What we’re doing: Food drives and volunteer opportunities
To help play a role in addressing food insecurity in our communities, TD SYNNEX launched the Next Meal campaign, a dedicated effort to bring awareness and assistance to these groups in need. Throughout the month of June, our Corporate Responsibility team is hosting several food drives at our major locations and volunteer opportunities at local food banks.
These activities will take place in:
- Clearwater, Fla.
Our team at the Clearwater headquarters volunteered at Feeding Tampa Bay, an organization that provides food assistance to 10 counties across west-central Florida. To date, Feeding Tampa Bay has served more than 95 million meals. - Greenville, S.C.
The Greenville team volunteered at Meals on Wheels, a national organization with more than 5,000 community branches across the U.S., primarily addressing isolation and hunger among seniors. - San Antonio, Texas
Our office in the Lone Star State volunteered at the San Antonio Food Bank, a food bank actively fighting hunger and feeding hope since 1980. Each week, the San Antonio Food Bank serves more than 90,000 individuals, resulting in more than 74 million meals served each year. - Lisle, Ill.
Our Lisle office, just outside of Chicago hosted a food drive to support the West Suburban Community Pantry, a local pantry devoted to eradicating hunger in DuPage and Will counties. WSCP serves more than 5,600 individuals each month, - Fremont, Calif.
Our Northern California team held a virtual food drive for Second Harvest of Silicon Valley, resulting in more than 12,000 pounds of food donations. Second Harvest serves more than 450,000 people every month, an 80% increase over pre-pandemic levels. - Loudon, Va.
Our DLT public sector team is supporting Loudoun Hunger Relief, an organization that has distributed more than 2.3 million meals to 266,000 visitors in the MVD region.
We want to thank all of our co-workers who have helped make Next Meal possible this year and we thank all of our channel partners, vendors and customers doing their part to end food insecurity around our local communities.
This article was contributed by Denise Dixon, community relations manager at TD SYNNEX. Learn more about our corporate citizenship program and why you should invest in community relations.
