This year, Move For Hunger created a new award to showcase our hunger fighting heroes in a new light! The Hunger Fighting Champion Award is a quarterly award that is given to a Move For Hunger partner that has gone above and beyond in the fight against hunger.
For the second quarter of the year, Move For Hunger is highlighting two partners who did an incredible job fighting hunger this summer - SIRVA and North American Van Lines.
SIRVA
Throughout June, SIRVA hosted its first annual Operation End Veteran Hunger Food Drive across the United States, which provided over 18,900 meals to veterans in need. This initiative was started by Suzie Chapman, VP of Global Account Management, and TJ Henderson, Supply Chain Manager at SIRVA, to target hungry veteran communities nationwide.
In anticipation of Veteran’s Day 2021, Suzie met with the SIRVA employees that are Veterans to learn about their experiences and to understand how best we can honor them. After a myriad of conversations, crystalized by the awareness raised by TJ, she became aware of the severity of the hungry and homeless veteran population across the United States. Inspired to take action, Suzie and TJ, an 11-year veteran of the Navy, brainstormed how they could help.
“Some of the deepest relationships I ever experienced were with the men and women I served with during my time in the US Navy,” TJ said. “As I was watching television one night, I came across a commercial about how the veteran population was being significantly impacted by the homelessness crisis. It showed images of veterans sleeping in tents on the streets, pandering for money, and standing in long lines at food
banks,” “I really had a hard time processing what I was seeing on the screen. Why was I unaware that this was even a problem?”
TJ continues, “I wondered if any of the people I was seeing on the screen were men and women that I had served with or their family members. A couple of days later I got a phone call from Suzie Chapman expressing how something was driving her to help our veteran population. To this day I’m not sure exactly what it was but all I knew was that she was highly motivated and tenacious. That was all I needed to actually get in the game.”
In total, SIRVA engaged real estate brokers in their network in three locations, and one SIRVA location participated in the food drive and collected more than 4,500 lbs of food, and raised nearly $6,000 to help veteran-focused food pantries and soup kitchens fill their shelves.
SIRVA and Move for Hunger also collaborated with three of our outstanding moving companies to fight veteran hunger head on! The collection drive was held in four cities across the country; Bentonville, AK, Phoenix, AZ, Atlanta, GA, and Independence, OH. In total, they were able to donate nearly 19,000 meals to veterans in need throughout America.
North American Van Lines
From April 18 - May 2, North American Van Lines and Move For Hunger partnered together to host the second annual Great North American Food Drive, collecting 17,000 lbs of donations, and providing over 14,000 meals to food insecure communities across the United States!
"With inflation rising to record levels, more individuals than ever are finding it increasingly difficult to put food on the table and are turning to food banks for assistance,” said Kevin Murphy, Vice President and General Manager. “With no let-up in sight for those in need, food banks continue to face unprecedented demand. Since 2011, North American and its agent network have been honored to partner with Move For Hunger in its fight against food insecurity.”
North American Van Lines partnered with Move For Hunger in 2011 and has since brought on more than 75 participating agents into the Move For Hunger network. Over the past eleven years, North American Van Lines and its agents have helped transport over 650,000lbs, equalling more than 545,000 meals, to food banks and pantries in the United States and Canada.
Through the support of partners like North American Van Lines and its parent company SIRVA, who is also a partner, Move For Hunger can continue to fight for the families, individuals, and children most in need of food assistance. Want to join the fight against hunger? Sign up to become part of our nationwide network!
