WHY

1. March 3, 1975 Singer Harry Chapin and Radio Talk-Show Host Bill Ayres co-found World Hunger Year(WHY) with the intention of educating people about hunger and poverty by asking the Why questions: Why is there hunger in a world that can feed itself? Why is there so much hunger in the USA, the richest country in the history of the world?

2. Harry and Bill create the first Hungerthon, a 24 hour radiothon on Thanksgiving weekend 1975 bringing experts in hunger to WNEW-FM, America’s premier rock station. They then travel the country for the next three years hosting Hungerthons in Philadelphia, San Francisco, Detroit, Long Island, Washington D.C., Dallas and two more in NYC.  They reach more than 2million people.

3. At a concert during the NYC Hungerthon in 1978 they raise money to start the New York City Hunger Hotline, the first of its kind in the USA.  The Hotline helps to found hundreds of emergency food providers and serves hundreds of thousands of hungry people until it is absorbed into the city’s new 311 system.

4. Sandy Chapin, Harry’s wife, suggests to Harry and Bill and a few important congressmen that they convince President Carter to establish a Presidential Commission on World Hunger.  They agree and Harry is especially effective going from one congressional office to another until the Commission becomes a reality from 1978 to 1980.  When Carter losses the election virtually all of the recommendations are scrapped by President Reagan.

5. During all of WHY’s 35 years we have always believed in the power of community based organizations.  In 1978 colleagues in New Jersey ask Harry to help fund an organization that would become The Center for Food Action in New Jersey.  In 1981 we founded Long Island Cares, Long Island’s Food Bank, now known as the Harry Chapin Food Bank.

6. Frances More Lappe and Joe Collins became early mentors.  They asked Harry to help fund their ground-breaking study of world hunger,Food First and to found the first magazine devoted to hunger and poverty in 1977, Food Monitor, later known as WHY Magazine.

7. After Harry died on July 16, 1981 dozens of artists led by Tom and Steve Chapin performed at benefit concerts for WHY.  This eventually evolved into Artists Against Hunger and Poverty in the '90s.

8. IN 1982 Jim Chapin, Harry’s older brother suggested that we fund the World Hunger Media Awards, now known as the Harry Chapin Media Awards for the best media reporting on hunger and poverty in books, newspapers, magazines, television, radio, photojournalism and this year for online. Kenny Rogers was our initial funder.

9. Sandy Chapin came up with another great idea, the Harry Chapin Self-Reliance Awards, cash prizes for the most effective and innovative community based programs that promote self-reliance.  We gave the first one in 1985 to the Hartford Food System and over the years we have awarded more than $600,000 to more than 160 community based organizations.

10. Hungerthons again as fundraisers.  WNEW-FM approached us with a unique idea of doing the Hungerthon in partnership with UNICEF live from the United Nations starting again in 1985.  The plan worked well and we hosted some extraordinary concerts for the next few years until the First Gulf War when the UN asked us to leave.  At first we were extremely disappointed but we went back to the Hungerthon at WNEW-FM without UNICEF.  Since then we have raised more than $11,000,000 thanks to the generosity of our listeners and several radio stations, especially the CBS NYC stations.

11. In 1985, in the wake of a severe recession, we funded a Farm Bill Media Campaign and hired two excellent D.C. media experts to coordinate a campaign with dozens of national farm, religious and hunger organizations to put billions of dollars of funds back into federal nutrition programs and to enact the most sweeping farm conservation program in the 20th century.  We succeeded in both.

12. In 1989-90 we began our largest program, Reinvesting in America to visit more than a thousand of the most effective and innovative community based organizations in America and create a network that would allow them to learn from one another’s successes and through which we could connect them to government, the media and funders.  Today it is called the Grassroots Action Network and has ------- members.

13. In 1992 we joined more than a dozen national organizations to publish the Medford Declaration, a roadmap for ending hunger in America.  This led to the establishment of NAHO (The National Association of Hunger Organizations) in the next decade.  This coalition uses its expertise and connections to pass important federal legislation to fight hunger and poverty.

14. In 1993 Bruce Springsteen hosted a major concert at the Meadowlands for us and two community based organizations.  That was the beginning of Artists Against Hunger and Poverty which now includes dozens of artists.  The program has raised more than $10,000,000 for hundreds of organizations and for WHY, most of it raised by Bruce.

15. In 1994 two of our most active board members Jane and Larry Levine founded Kids Can Make a Difference, an excellent program to educate young people about hunger and get them involved in community based solutions.

16. In 1994-95 we received a contract from the USDA Food and Nutrition Services to establish a National Hunger Clearinghouse to connect with thousands of local hunger and food organizations and to connect them to the programs of USDA.

17. In 1994 we were a founding member of the National Jobs for All Coalition.

18. During the late 90s we partnered with USDA Food and Nutrition Services in a series of regional workshops that brought together dozens of the most effective community based hunger and poverty organizations with regional representatives of USDA to share best practices.

19. In 2000 we brought ten of the very best community based organizations to the White House to meet with representatives of all the federal agencies that deal with poverty.  Following the conference the administration created a database that included all the federal programs and policies that dealt with poverty and made it accessible to the public.  We also worked with USDA to decrease the amount of paperwork that people had to fill out in order to receive federal benefits.
20. Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman asked us to create a National Gleaning Hotline to take donations of food.  The hotline attracted hundreds and then thousands of calls from people who were hungry so we changed the name to The National Hunger Hotline.  We answer calls every day from hungry Americans from all across the country and we connect them with an emergency food provider in their community and all the federal nutrition programs.

21. In 1995 we sent representatives to the Women’s Summit in Beijing.

22. During the 90s WHY became involved and then a leader of the new Community Food Security Movement whose motto is “good food for all”. WHY staff have played an important role in this movement and with specific successful organizations that are promoting healthy local food.

23. In partnership with USDA WHY created the Food Security Learning Center to provide a wide range of people with knowledge about many new terms like Community Supported Agriculture (CSAs) and Farm to School Programs as well as information about all the federal feeding programs, family farms, farm workers and much more.

24. For our 25th anniversary in 2000 we hosted our first ever WHY Dinner.  It has become a yearly event that has celebrated great artists, political figures and hunger activists.

25. We convinced the USDA to create the National Hunger Champions Annual Award in 2006 for the food stamp offices in the country that provide the most timely and courteous services to their clients.

26. In 2008 we convinced the USDA to create a National Food Stamp Outreach Promising Practices Website so people can learn about the best practices and not have to reinvent the wheel.

27. We co-published “Building the Bridge” with the National Community Food Security Coalition to bridge the gap between emergency food providers, hunger activists and community food activists.  Each group has a different perspective and constituents but we can all work together for food change.  WHY has become an important bridge connecting all factions.

28. The Hard Rock Café chose us as a partner in the early 90s and has hosted numerous concerts, meetings and other fundraisers for us and sold the Bruce Springsteen signature series shirt for WHY.

29. In 2008 WHY partnered with Hard Rock International and Yoko Ono to create the Imagine Campaign to raise funds for seven local organizations in Asia, Africa and Latin America that were not only feeding children but also teaching them to grow food.  Through the sale of wristbands in all the HRC venues throughout the world the campaign raised $140,000 and during 2009 doubled to over $300,000. 

30. 2008 brought a global food crisis of staggering proportions.  More than 100 MILLION additional people were hungry, bringing the total to over a BILLION.  In the USA the number went from 32 MILLION to 49 MILLION.  WHY initiated the Global Food Crisis Campaign which is calling on the UN, the American government and major food providers to refocus on helping small farmers through safe and productive farming practices.

31. The Benefit Bank is an amazing database technology that allows people to sign up for federal and state benefits within a half hour with the help of a counselor.  Several years ago WHY helped the program to connect with the Ohio Association of Food Banks and during the past two years they have created 1400 offices throughout the state, serviced 100,000 clients and brought $200MILLION of benefits to mostly poor working people.  WHY is presently working with two partners, Solutions for Progress which created the Benefit Bank and MDC of North Carolina to bring the Benefit Bank to more states and to community colleges through a similar use of technology in the Assests4Education program.

32. In 2009 WHY received a foundation grant to work in two areas that are considered “food deserts”, areas in rural America or in inner cities that do not have access to fresh fruits, vegetables or meat.  There are convenience stores and fast food restaurants but not much else.  We are presently working with coalitions in southern Arizona and the Mississippi Delta and we hope to add Detroit this year.

33. WHY has always connected local programs so they can learn from one another.  This year WHY is partnering with Growing Power of Milwaukee and USDA in a National Mentoring Program.  To help the most successful programs share their expertise with newer programs that want to learn

34. WHY’s latest corporate partnership this year is with Whole Foods.  In one day they raised more than $100,000 for-- –community hunger programs in the NY Metro area.

35. Rate the States is a matrix of hunger and poverty stats for all the states and an analysis of how well the federal hunger and poverty programs are administered by the states.  The data will be shared with USDA and with our state and national partners.

36. As we enter our 36th year on March 3, 2010 we have decided to go back to our roots of asking the Why Questions and rename our organization WhyHunger. Thank you for your support over all these years.  Now you have a better idea how we invested the money and the results we have achieved. If you are just learning about us go to whyhunger.org or call us at 1800-5-HUNGRY.  Peace!