Rallying To End Child Hunger With A Depeche Mode Twist!

I planned to buy lots of ice cream on May 2nd. My two sons even stuffed their jean pockets with all the cash from their piggy banks- they were SO ready to purchase and eat all the ice cream they could.

But, thanks to the guy who crashed his car into mine on May 2nd, and my subsequent not-so-fun trip to the UCLA emergency room, we missed out on fellow Los Angeles’ blogger Andrea Fellman of Savvy Sassy Moms ’s neighborhood rally, a super fun “ice cream social” with all proceeds benefitting the ConAgra Foods Child Hunger Ends Here campaign benefiting Feeding America

Andrea’s rally epitomized the heart of the campaign -raising awareness about the problem of child hunger since nearly one in four children in America experiences it, and then doing something about it on the community level. As Andrea shares on her blog, some ice cream vendors weren’t down to help out the cause (and were downright rude!) but mom-owned Los Angeles ice cream truck company King Kone came through and agreed to donate their tasty treats.

Andrea spread word about the rally through her blog and on Twitter – that’s how I found out about it. She also used low-tech methods like passing out invitations at her daughter’s school pancake breakfast and setting up a table for donations in case people couldn’t make it.

Every dollar Andrea raised = seven meals for kids. I know of at least 14 other bloggers nationwide who also hosted neighborhood rallies that were just as fun and impactful. They each made their rallies fun and simple.

Two others I really liked were Chicago-area blogger Tamara from The Unexperienced Mom’s idea to set up a donation table at an Earth Day Event, and Courtney Velasquez from Detroit Mommies idea to get a local restaurant to co-host her rally and donate 5% of its take from one night to the cause.

During the school year, 19.5 million children receive free or reduced-price lunches through the National School Lunch Program, but only 2.2 million children receive meals during the summer months through the Summer Food Service Program.

Whether the gap is 17 million kids or even half of that number, too many kids struggle with hunger during the summer months. Because of this, please consider registering to host your own rally. Every dollar raised and donated online will stay in your community to help kids in need.

Any event you’d like to host in your community – a block party, a BBQ, a beautification or community garden effort, even a garage sale to get rid of junk, can turn into a rally. The Child Hunger Ends Here website has a great toolkit that will walk you through all the simple steps to host your own. It’s not too late to get on board.

Since I couldn’t attend the rally at Andrea’s house, how about we do a virtual one here on Los Angelista… And how about we have a Depeche Mode theme for it!

If you know anything about me, you knew this was coming didn’t you? Besides the band does lots for charities around the world so I know they’d be on board to attend if they could!

Ending Hunger With Depeche Mode and Los Angelista

For every comment individual readers leave on this post sharing why they think Depeche Mode is such a fantastic band, $1 dollar will be donated on behalf of Los Angelista to the Child Hunger Ends Here campaign, up to $100!

OK, even if you don’t exactly love Depeche Mode –the thought that you don’t is confusing to me- but for the purposes of this rally, roll with me and find SOMETHING to love about them because that $100 we could raise will buy 700 meals for kids. You can even say you think their leather jackets in that picture are super hot! C'mon, it's for the kids!

Spread the word – it takes 30 seconds to leave a comment and kids will benefit from it. We’ll close our rally on June 1st. I hope you all decide to attend – hungry kids need us to participate!

*I'm working with ConAgra Foods on this campaign but all thoughts and Depeche Mode references in this post are my own!