Hunger Solutions Matching Funds Campaign

The Camden Promise and Open Your Heart to the Hungry and Homeless Announce Fifth Annual Food Shelf Challenge Grant

In Minnesota, summer means trips to the lake, long bike rides, and fresh produce. But many Minnesota families can’t afford weekly trips to the farmer’s market for fruits and vegetables. The Camden Promise Food Shelf helps provide nutritious fruits and vegetables to these families and needs your help this summer. Donations in July will be matched by Open Your Heart to the Hungry and Homeless to help end hunger in the Camden Community.

Minneapolis, MN —(July 1, 2014)— The Camden Promise and Open Your Heart to the Hungry and Homeless announce the Fifth Annual $150,000 Food Shelf Challenge Grant. Open Your Heart to the Hungry and Homeless will match donations to The Camden Promise during the month of July, up to $5,000. The more funds The Camden Promise raises in July, the larger the matching grant from Open Your Heart to the Hungry and Homeless will be. In 2013, Minnesota food shelves raised over $1,000,000 with this grant and hope to raise even more this year.

Help The Camden Promise reach our goal of $10,000 or pounds of food in one of two ways:

• Donate online at www.thecamdenpromise.org and encourage your friends to do the same;
  
• Host a food drive at your place of employment or worship. 

Open Your Heart to the Hungry and Homeless believes this approach to hunger alleviation is effective because it brings communities together to solve a growing concern across Minnesota. The $150,000 Challenge will power a statewide initiative that leverages Open Your Heart funding to bring additional dollars to food shelves and increase awareness of child hunger during the summer. Since 1986, Open Your Heart to the Hungry and Homeless has targeted millions of dollars to strategically fight hunger in Minnesota. Open Your Heart funds the purchase and transfer of more than one million pounds of fresh produce, meat and dairy products every year through Hunger Solutions Minnesota.

FOOD SHELVES FILL EMPTY PLATES EVERY SUMMER

Minnesota food shelves help families obtain the groceries they cannot afford to purchase on their own. People served by food shelves report having to choose between paying for food and paying for utilities and other necessities. “I know that my kids are not the best behaved...but you still let them eat during the summer. That means a lot to me. My kids are safe and fed.” A Neighborhood Mom

Summer is especially stressful for both families with children and the food shelves that serve them. Every day, 3,500 Minnesota children are served by food shelves. For many kids, being home from school for the summer means they miss out on school meal programs as well. Food shelves help fill this gap.

The Camden Promise provides a Client Choice Food Shelf the first and third Saturday of each month; Perishable Food Distributions weekly on Monday, Wednesday and Friday’s; community wide Hot Dog BBQ’s each Wednesday evening; lunch Monday – Friday; Breakfast-and-a-Bag every Sunday. In addition to our food programs, The Camden Promise programming includes Awesome Summer Kids, and enrichment program for children grades kindergarten to 6th grade.

ABOUT THE CAMDEN PROMISE

Since 2010, The Camden Promise has been addressing hunger in the Camden Community of North Minneapolis. The Camden Promise was launched by Gethsemane Lutheran Church as an outreach ministry in collaboration with our partner congregations. Current Camden Promise partners include
Nu Way Baptist Church, Salem Evangelical Lutheran Church and community volunteers as we serve our surrounding neighbors modeling our name and tagline, The Camden Promise, Building Hope...Together.

The Camden Promise mission is to engage people where they are at – one person at a time – restoring trust, building hope and growing an empowered community. We envision a safe community filled with hearts willing to serve one another. We see our neighborhood vibrant, abundant and connected.

The Camden Promise is a 501 (C) 3 nonprofit and is located at 4656 Colfax Avenue North, Minneapolis, MN 55412. For more information: http://www.thecamdenpromise.org

ABOUT OPEN YOUR HEART TO THE HUNGRY AND HOMELESS

Open Your Heart to the Hungry and Homeless has 28 years of experience as the only grant provider in Minnesota focused solely on alleviating hunger and homelessness. Open Your Heart helps food and shelter providers of all sizes get the resources they need to serve more people, including mattresses, freezers, fresh produce and roof repairs. They also support homeless students by providing school supplies, activity fees, gym shoes, tutoring materials and other essentials that help them engage fully in school. For more information: http://www.oyh.org/