The American Farm Bureau Federation is supporting Feeding America through sales of the #StillFarming to Feed America t-shirts. Micheal Clements shares how you can help needy Americans through the campaign.
Clements: COVID-19 shutdowns last year caused disruptions to the food supply chain, resulting in empty grocery shelves in parts of the country. When alarmed Americans resorted to panic purchasing, Farm Bureau President Zippy Duvall says the organization created the #StillFarming social media campaign to build public confidence in the food supply.
Duvall: #StillFarming gave us a platform to assure the consumer that we would continue to be out in the fields, in the barns, taking care of the animals and producing the food for this country and a lot of the world. And little did we know after the state Farm Bureaus picked it up and started running with it, we have touched over 100 million people with that hashtag.
Clements: Now, Duvall says AFBF is taking the next step in the effort, supporting those in need.
Duvall: And we’re going to make sure that the ones in our country that may not have enough food to eat, we’re going to try to help generate some more funds to help feed some of those hungry people. So, the next step in #StillFarming is we’re going to sell t-shirts. And half of the profits will go to Feeding America which is the countries largest network of food banks. And the other 50 percent will go to American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture.
Clements: Feeding America’s Elizabeth Marquardt says COVID-19 has forced more families to turn to food banks.
Marquardt: This support is more vital than ever. Our projections at Feeding America show that food insecurity has increased by about 50 percent as a result of the economic pain of COVID-19. So, because of partners like Farm Bureau, our network of food banks across the country is able to provide nutritious food to families to help get them through this crisis.
Clements: You can purchase the t-shirts online at FB.org/StillFarming. Micheal Clements, Washington.
Read the full announcement of the Still Farming to Feed America partnership here. Purchase your Still Farming to Feed America t-shirt here.
