Did you know that over 40 million Americans struggle with food insecurity with a lack of access at times to enough food for an active healthy life? Yet approximately 40% of all food produced in the U.S. each year is lost or wasted?
Move for Hunger (MFH) is a national non-profit organization working to resolve this massive problem by mobilizing the relocation industry and the multifamily real estate community to reduce food waste and fight hunger.
Kastle is proud to join MFH as a corporate partner to support their efforts to “rescue” unopened, non-perishable food that would otherwise go to waste when apartment residents move out of their homes by the millions every year.
MFH enlists relocation companies and apartment properties to collect and transport these food items to local food banks and pantries across the US. They also promote and coordinate thousands of localized food drives each year – over 1,400 in 2019.
While Kastle is a financial sponsor of MFH, we are also excited to take part in the actual food collection programs like food drives, fund-raising events and even interactive contests like the “ArCANtecture” competition we held at our annual sales conference in February. There, with the help of MFH coaching, ten Kastle teams of employees had 30 minutes to build structures using cans of green beans, diced tomatoes, pinto beans, & boxes of cereal, which was all generously donated by Harris-Teeter grocery stores. Each structure was judged based on creativity, the amount of food they used, and the stability of their design.
The competition was fierce, of course, but the most important outcome was that all the food-based construction materials were kindly collected and delivered by our fellow corporate partner, Paxton Moving Company to local food banks. The crew delivered 12,102 lbs. of the food to the Capital Area Food Bank and dropped off 2,800 lbs. at the St. Lucy Food Project Warehouse. That will provide 12,400 meals for families in the Greater Washington, D.C. region.
We look forward to taking part in many more fund-raising and food collection opportunities with MFH across the nation so look for us in your area. If you or your organization is interested in participating in Move for Hunger programs, please visit their website at MoveForHunger.org.