With 1 in 10 Montgomery County residents at risk of going to bed hungry, it’s not just governments and individuals who are stepping up to help feed our neighbors in need due to the pandemic. With a $100,000 challenge match grant focused on corporations, Burness and Business Leaders Fighting Hunger aim to inspire businesses to help meet the challenge of providing food to 114,000 food insecure residents in Montgomery County.
Andy Burness, a longtime Community Foundation donor said
“This innovative coalition of businesses is taking on hunger in the time of Covid to help raise $5 million, but we were dedicated to fighting hunger before the pandemic. Everyone has to step up – nonprofits do the work on ground, and government certainly has a large role to play, but businesses need to step up and make a real, significant contribution to help alleviate this unprecedented level of hunger.”
Volunteers prepare boxes of food to distribute in Montgomery County, Maryland.
Each contribution will be matched, dollar for dollar, for Food for Montgomery, a coordinated public-private partnership between the Greater Washington Community Foundation, Montgomery County government, and more than 125 nonprofits, faith communities, small businesses, and farmers working to address the rise in food insecurity. The Food for Montgomery Fund is raising $5 million to meet the staggering increase in food insecure Montgomery County residents today and ensure the county’s food relief system is ready for the future.
Already the Food for Montgomery fund has raised more than $1 million to meet the urgent need for food now, support our small businesses and farmers, and strengthen our hunger relief system to meet today’s challenges and tomorrow’s crises. Since the start of the pandemic, Food for Montgomery has:
Supported local restaurants which prepared thousands of culturally-appropriate meals to deliver to home-bound seniors
Purchased produce from local farmers that food providers distributed
Stocked food providers’ shelves with nutritious food
Built capacity with grants to food providers for refrigerators, trucks, and other essential items
Helped more people sign up for food benefits like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)
Leveraged technology to efficiently scale services, intake, and food delivery
Expanded the number of food distribution sites and hubs to reach every part of the county
Yet because of COVID-19, the number of people wondering where their next meal will come from continues to grow; only with the support of the community will every Montgomery County resident have the nutritious food they need to work, learn, and live.
If you’d like to learn more about the Burness Challenge Match or Food for Montgomery, contact Anna Hargrave at ahargrave@thecommunityfoundation.org.
about burness
Burness is a mission-driven communications firm based in Montgomery County, Maryland. For the past 35 years, Burness has helped promote ideas that inspire and drive social change worldwide.
about BUSINESS LEADERS FIGHTING HUNGER
Co-founded by Sodexo and Burness, Business Leaders Fighting Hunger is a coalition of Montgomery County employers committed to doing their part to reduce hunger. Its strategic giving and leadership have been essential to strengthening Montgomery County’s food security system in recent years. To learn more, check out the Business Leaders Fighting Hunger 2020 Progress Report to read about the businesses behind this effort and how their philanthropic investments enabled partners to respond quickly when the pandemic struck Montgomery County.