Butterviews

I recently went to SXSW as a result of winning a contest from Wal-Mart and the Eleven Moms. My actual sponsor, however, was The Hunger Pledge. Unfortunately, before during the event, I was unable to actually connect with them to thank them.

So much happened during SXSW that I was too drained to do a rundown on each day. So instead, I thought I’d just highlight what the Hunger Pledge is.

The Pledge is a way to give to Share our Strenth. 1 in 6 children in America will wonder when their next meal will come. That’s 12 million + children. In America.

About Share Our Strength

Share Our Strength® is a national organization that works hard to make sure no kid in America grows up hungry.

We weave together a net of community groups, activists and food programs to catch children at risk of hunger and surround them with nutritious food where they live, learn and play.

We work with the culinary industry to create engaging, pioneering programs like Share Our Strength’s Taste of the Nation®, Share Our Strength’s Great American Bake Sale®, Share Our Strength’s A Tasteful Pursuit®, Share Our Strength’s Great American Dine Out™, and Share Our Strength’s Operation Frontline®. Discover how you can get involved »
Why We Do It

We have all experienced hunger at one time or another: We’ve all craved a midnight snack, wanted something salty or needed some chocolate. But there’s a big difference between trying to satisfy a brief craving or stomach growl and wondering when or from where your next meal will come.

More than 12.4 million—one in six—children in America are at risk of hunger. These children will endure lifelong consequences as a result of having limited access to nutritious foods. In fact, they’re more likely to suffer poorer health, fatigue, hospitalizations, behavioral difficulties and impaired performance at school.

And hunger doesn’t discriminate. It can affect any child—even those you’d least expect.

Despite the good efforts of governments, private-sector institutions and everyday Americans, millions of our children still don’t have daily access to the nutritious meals they need to live active, healthy lives.

Through the strength of dedicated, committed volunteers to support our fundraising efforts and community organizations that put our resources to good use, Share Our Strength finds childhood hunger where it hides and works hard to end it.

• We raise funds through our pioneering culinary events (Share Our Strength’s Taste of the Nation, Great American Dine Out, A Tasteful Pursuit and Great American Bake Sale) and award grants to support successful organizations across the country that work to provide children and their families with the healthy food they need. Since our inception in 1984, we have raised over $245 million and provided support to more than 1,000 of the most effective hunger-relief organizations around the globe. Get involved with a Share Our Strength event.
• We partner with leading corporations through strategic marketing programs that engage their customers, employees and partners around the issue of ending childhood hunger in America. Learn more about our innovative corporate partnerships.
• We award grants to organizations throughout the country whose efforts and successes align with the 10 points of our national plan to end childhood hunger. Learn more about our Grants at Work.
• We convene partnerships with effective, influential nonprofits that develop their own plans modeled after Share Our Strength’s national plan to end childhood hunger. Learn more about our state partnerships.
• We provide education programming through Share Our Strength’s Operation Frontline, our awarding winning nutrition education program that teaches families how to prepare healthy, low-cost meals. Learn more about Operation Frontline.

All of this work supports our strategy to end childhood hunger in America.

The Pledge itself is a way to rally the nation to ending hunger. You can pledge to give money, volunteer, or share. Pledge today! Some resources for you to help:

• Hunger Pledge at Twitter
• Share our Strength Website
• Hunger Pledge Website

When I attended Blissdom last month, I won a contest to go to SXSW sponsored by the Eleven Moms and Wal-Mart.  I believe my personal trip is being sponsored by the Pledge to End Hunger, but I haven’t yet been able to connect with their rep.  Although I’ll be attending their panel later this weekend and learning more about it, which I’ll pass on to you as well.  Considering the latest in the Sparks household, it was both a blessing and a curse.  A great way to get my business cards out there for my business venture, Vineyard Virtual Services, but also a difficult time in my personal life to leave.  But I decided to attend anyway.  Well – perhaps I went kicking and screaming based upon my husband and parents’ insistence.

So – here I am…  Currently writing to you from my beautiful hotel room in Austin.  I have yet to meet my roommate.

Poe and I got up at 4am in order to make my 7am flight this morning.  I had a previous engagement the night before, so I wasn’t able to get to bed until midnight.  Makes for a morning reminiscent of the infant years.  As of this writing, the local time is 7:30pm, my body’s time says it’s 5:30pm, and I’m just plain ready to go to bed now.

The plan was to eat at McDonalds on the way.  Which was thwarted by the notion that it wasn’t open yet.

I had one measly cup of coffee before heading into security.  Apparently this flight is particularly  popular, and I was unable to even eat at the airport before boarding.  Security and the shop line were simply too long.  I just really had time to run to the potty and wait for my boarding group.  Sad thing is – that meant that I would be unable to eat until after landing and getting to the hotel and maybe 2:30pm-3pm.

I landed at my Dallas stopover with no issues, but had a slight delay departing for Austin.  There was maintenance…  Ok.  Later, “Maintenance has not yet left the cockpit, so we’ll need to delay further.”  Yeah.  DELAY ALL YOU WANT.  FIX THE COCKPIT.

The flight was delayed by a half hour or so.  The rest was no big deal.  Made my way to the hotel.  Registered for the conference.  Ate some dinner.  Hung out in my room a bit…  And my roommate, Kim arrived along with Robin.  We met and hung a bit and met up with Sugar and went down for a drink.  And met Ori.  Ori was fun and irreverent and the little group we had together was in stitches.  Slightly sleep deprived stupid stitches.  Ended on the right note.

Tomorrow starts with a breakfast conference which I’m sure I’ll tell you all about it.