About Share Our Strength
Our History
Share Our Strength began ending childhood hunger in 1984. The need has never been greater...nor the goal more attainable.
Share Our Strength® began in the basement of a row house on Capitol Hill in 1984, in response to the ‘84-‘85 famine in Ethiopia. Brother and sister Bill and Debbie Shore started the organization with the belief that everyone has a strength to share in the global fight against hunger and poverty, and that in these shared strengths lie sustainable solutions.
The idea was simple yet revolutionary: raise funds through culinary and food-related events as well as individual and corporate donor development, grant those funds out to effective local organizations that demonstrate real results in fighting hunger (and, for the first 20 years, poverty), and use a small portion of the donor funds to develop the organization’s capacity and visibility.
That same principle remains solidly in place today, as does the tremendous support Share Our Strength receives from the culinary and foodservice communities and from our earliest corporate partners, including American Express, Tyson, Sysco and Brown-Forman. Today we focus these strengths on making No Kid Hungry® a reality in America.
Billy Shore, Founder of Share Our Strength speaking at our annual Conference of Leaders, October 2010 |
Highlights from our 25th Anniversary Conference of Leaders in 2009 |
1984:
Bill and Debbie Shore found Share Our Strength to help end global hunger and poverty. Coincidentally, and ironically, the term “foodie” is coined.
1988:
First Share Our Strength’s Taste of the Nation® event raises nearly $250,000 in a single day when 25 of the nation’s best restaurants held food and wine tastings.
1993:
Share Our Strength’s Operation Frontline® (now Share Our Strength’s Cooking Matters™) starts teaching low-income families how to eat better for less, long before the mainstream was matching culinary with nutrition. The program teaches six courses and helps 78 families.
1997:
Community Wealth Ventures, Inc., a for-profit subsidiary of Share Our Strength, opens its doors to help nonprofits become more self-sustaining by generating revenue through business ventures and corporate partnerships.
2004:
Share Our Strength turns 20, and announces its new focus with accompanying strategy: to end childhood hunger in America.
2005:
First Share Our Strength’s Great American Bake Sale® engages 21,330 bakers and 228,000 buyers to raise $912,040 to fund summer meals programs.
2006:
First Share Our Strength state partnership to end childhood hunger pilots, in Washington, D.C.; two more join in 2007 and by early 2012, there are 18.
2008:
New brand identity embodies Share Our Strength’s priority to end childhood hunger in America. The current logos bearing the tagline, “No Kid Hungry” are unveiled.
First Share Our Strength’s Great American Dine Out® (now Share Our Strength’s Dine Out For No Kid Hungry™ ) engages 3,900 restaurants (including popular chains) and their patrons in a national restaurant week that raises $575,000.
ConAgra Foods® Foundation becomes the national sponsor for Operation Frontline (now Cooking Matters) with a three-year, multi-million-dollar commitment.
2009:
Cause Marketing Forum awards Share Our Strength its 2009 Golden Halo Award for outstanding leadership in cause marketing.
National media runs key facts from Share Our Strength’s first research study, Hunger in America’s Classrooms: Share Our Strength’s Teacher Report
2010:
The No Kid Hungry® Campaign launches with Academy Award-winner and anti-hunger advocate Jeff Bridges and 20-plus corporate sponsors, and the No Kid Hungry Pledge becomes a point of entry for individuals eager to work for the cause.
For the first time in its history, Share Our Strength brings top chefs to Congressional offices to Advocate for a strong Child Nutrition Reauthorization Bill. It passes as the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010.
Operation Frontline rebrands itself as Cooking Matters, unveils Shopping Matters curriculum, and counts a total of 26 lead partners in 22 states.
The organization reports a record $24.8 million in revue earned through fundraising platforms, donations and 35 corporate sponsorships.
2011:
The organization releases Tackling Summer Hunger: Ensuring No Kid Goes Hungry When School Is Out, its first report on its progress increasing participation in summer meals programs.
Great American Dine Out rebrands itself as Share Our Strength’s Dine Out for No Kid Hungry™.
The Sodexo Foundation provides a three-year grant to support our work increasing participation in summer meals programs in three high-needs states.
2012:
Corporate partner Food Network premiers “Hunger Hits Home”, a 43-minute documentary a documentary that powerfully tells the story of hardworking American families struggling with hunger, and how the No Kid Hungry campaign is working to end that struggle. The documentary drives 62,223 visitors to NoKidHungry.org, raises $122,000 with its call to action, and lights up Twitter across the country.
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