SXSW Takes on Hunger –We Need You to Join Conversation

But the truth is, I didn’t travel to Austin for social media rehab. I went to Austin to think with some of the brightest minds in the country about how technology can help end hunger. Share Our Strength is part of an exciting project called WeCanEndThis.org, SXSW’s first ever collaborative effort to help solve a major social issue. This year’s focus is hunger.

The project kicked off at SXSW with a full-day brainstorm called Cause Lab. The goal is not to build a widget or come up with a clever online campaign. We’re hoping for real social change - innovative solutions like Ushahidi’s tool that mapped post-election violence in Kenya so quickly and effectively in 2008 that the government finally stepped in to respond. This tool now has been deployed to help with post disaster response in Haiti, to monitor voting in India, and for other applications that help individuals connect for social good. So you can imagine how excited we are to see what will happen when this kind of BIG thinking is applied to solving hunger in America.

The Cause Lab was an opportunity for Share Our Strength to share its No Kid Hungry strategy to end childhood hunger in America with some of the top media and marketing minds in the country, influential thinkers with big networks. Throughout the day, folks in the room tweeted the videos and stories we were sharing, and generated so much buzz that hunger was one of the trending topics on Twitter that day.

In just a few hours, some very exciting ideas emerged. Now the real work begins. The Cause Lab workshop kicked off a 30-day virtual brainstorm through a new digital platform called Goodzuma —and you can join in the discussion by pitching your own idea, or building upon an existing pitch. Visit We Can End This. between now and April 15 when the call for proposals will close.

WeCanEndThis.com will award a $1,000 Innovation Prize to the person judged to have the best idea and a $500 Collaboration Prize to the person who helps one of the ideas become better. But the real winners will be the families and children whose lives will be changed when we end hunger for good. Hunger is a complex issue. Ending it will require that we all do our part. It took a lot of courage for me to dive into the deep end of the social media pool without so much as a float. So no excuses for you. Help us get this done. Please join us by visiting We Can End This.