ConAgra Foods, in partnership with Feeding America, recently hosted a kick-off event in LA where a group of 14 mom bloggers were brought out as special guests. Although there wasn’t a specific requirement, the obvious goal was for the ladies to document their experiences through tweets, videos, and blog posts. As seen below:
We spoke with Gina Demars of ConAgra and she said there’s an assumption that obesity is the big food-related issue, when in fact, childhood hunger still exists and is “a national problem that happens in your community, in your back yard.”
The Hunger Ends Here initiative is designed to raise awareness about childhood hunger from a grassroots level. Rather than spending a lot of dollars on traditional advertising, ConAgra decided to focus their efforts online and so they enlisted 14 bloggers from different regions to help spread the word.
It was a two day event which began with the bloggers being taken to the LA Food Bank where they toured the facility and helped fill backpacks with food for kids.
Jessica Rosenberg of It’s Jessica’s Life says:
“We joked and laughed as we packed up generic peanut butter, corn flakes, spaghetti, and a few other things, but it was hard to not imagine the child who would be digging in to these bags and wonder if he’d be thrilled to find a little bag of animal crackers or sad that there were so few treats.”
The goal was to inform + inspire the women to create local initiatives under the banner of the campaign to help their own communities between now and the end of May. It seems to have worked because there are a variety of upcoming events the mom bloggers have planned including hosting coupon workshops, rummage sales, and rallies to raise money for food banks. Here’s footage from the tour courtesy of ExtraordinaryMommy.com:
The second day started on the set of Desperate Housewives – on Wisteria Lane. The location was specially chosen because of the neighborhood feel, which meshed well with the concept of the entire campaign.
The kick-off was hosted by Housewife cast member Dana Delaney and the bloggers were able to meet other celebrity attendees such as David Arquette (who according to tweets made a bunch of them swoon), Kathy Ireland and O.C. housewife Gretchen Rossi. Here’s a Whrrl from Courtney Velasquez of DetroitMommies.com:
P.S. If you’re a brand or PR agency that works with mom bloggers, be sure to add us to your press release list and send us details on events, brand ambassadors and interesting stories. If you’re interested in sponsoring our site, send an email to advertising@sheposts.com
{photo credit: ConAgra Foods Facebook}
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very very cool. Ive found ConAgra to be a brand who walks the walk when it comes to community and giving back.
Carla
I have been so impressed with ConAgra and the outreach that they have done here and their openness and eagerness to get to know the blog community!
So glad to see this campaign highlighted in so many places. I’ve truly enjoyed being a part of it and love to know we are all making a huge impact by just spreading awareness!
Tamara
(@unxperiencedmom)
I’m proud to be a part of this campaign. I have a special place in my heart when it comes to causes related to children – but when you realize that there are 17 million kids in this country who are hungry – (almost 300K in Missouri where I am) it just moves you to do something – even it if is small. Con Agra is moving mountains not only by raising money/donating funds but by spreading awareness.
I too was proud to be a part of this campaign. Not only have my own eyes been opened to this huge national issue, but I have been happy to be able to share what I have learned with others.
Thank you for covering this event and thank you for linking to my post! We hope that our grassroots effort will make a significant impact on neighborhoods all across the nation. It’s heartbreaking to think of how many kids go hungry right here in our backyards. (The situation grows worse in the summer when schools are closed and the hot breakfast and lunch programs are no longer available.)
That said, I did want to add that ConAgra Foods is not just using bloggers to spread the word about this campaign. There is quite a bit of traditional media also being used to promote their efforts. The goal is to spread the word as far as possible. Thank you for helping us do that!
This campaign is so much more than using us Mom Bloggers to post, tweet and vlog about it. The real impact is coming from the call to the EVERYONE to join the effort to raise awareness and funds to benefit FeeedingAmerica.org
I’m so excited to work with ConAgra on this project and have already seen the positive impact it’s made on my friends, family and readers.