September is Hunger Action Month, the goal of which is to raise awareness and prompt action in the fight against food insecurity. Hunger is an unfortunate reality for tens of millions of Americans. In fact, one in six children go to bed hungry every night. The pandemic has exacerbated this problem through increased unemployment, forcing many individuals and families across the U.S. to have to choose between paying bills like rent and electricity or buying food. This has increased pressure on local food banks to step up and increase their assistance, even as food donations have decreased. northAmerican and its agent network are committed to helping fight hunger, which is why we are a proud partner of Move For Hunger.

Move For Hunger is a non-profit organization that offers a way for individuals that are moving, through their moving company, to donate non-perishable food items to local food pantries. northAmerican has been a Move For Hunger partner since 2011, with our agents collecting 611,929 pounds of food, the equivalent of 509,941 meals. This number includes donations in 2021, which to date are 81,666 pounds.

This Hunger Action Month, northAmerican will be featuring a few of the many agents that help combat hunger across the United States.

One of the northAmerican agents that has truly taken the fight against food insecurity to heart is Beltmann Relocation Group. Despite unparalleled demand for moving services, this summer the Beltmann team in Los Angeles teamed up with Farmlink to transport 3,964 pounds of fresh fruits and vegetables (including potatoes, romaine lettuce, yellow squash, green onions, broccoli, oranges, snap peas, green squash, celery and peaches to the Hollywood Food Coalition. The food was used to create the Coalition’s nightly community dinners served to the area’s homeless and hungry.

Across the country, the Beltmann team in Pompano Beach, Florida, conducted their own food drive in July – one of the busiest months of the year for movers. The team was able to surpass their goal of 500 pounds, collecting 1, 175 pounds of food donations. The donated food items were delivered to Boca Helping Hands in Boca Raton, where they will help provide meals to over 265,000 people (1 of 5 of which are children) in Broward County, Florida.

Ward North American also continued their spirit of giving back to their community by providing pick up and transfer for food drives at local apartment complexes in April and May. In April, Ward transported food collected at The Place at Green Trails "Spring into Action" food drive. In May, they transported food donations collected at two "Spread the Love" food drive events held at Midtown Houston by Windsor and Sovereign at Regent Square. All in, Ward delivered 1,376 pounds of food to the Houston Food Bank this spring.

In May, the Indianapolis location of University Moving & Storage teamed up with Target and Move For Hunger to help their employees pick up food donations as part of an Earth Day food drive. University then transported 852 pounds of donated non-perishable food donations to Grace Care Center and Choice Food Pantry.

Rainbow Movers, Franklin Massachusetts, also got into the spirit this year by participating in Move For Hunger’s One Box Challenge, collecting 67 pounds of food donations from customers during the month of May.

All this activity is in addition to the Great North American Food Drive in April 2021. During the week-long food drive, 32 northAmerican agent locations in the U.S. and Canada collected over 25,000 pounds of food for local food banks. Thank you to all our agents, their drivers, crews and employees, for supporting Move For Hunger and joining the fight against food insecurity.

For more information on how you can help fight hunger in your community when you move, contact your local northAmerican agent.