When we began as Feed The Hunger Foundation in 2007, we chose to address the issue of food; food as a cultural gathering space that brings immigration, economics, labor, the environment, and nurturance to the table. It is also a space dominated by agribusiness and based on an economy of extraction; an economy that compels the soil to produce more and more, while simultaneously dousing it with pesticides and stripping it of nourishment.
This system relies on fossil fuels to ship foods far from their place of origin, disregarding natural seasons and cycles of growth. In mere decades, industrialized production has severed the symbiotic connection between people and food that had existed over thousands of years. It is fundamentally unsustainable, in spirit and in practice and will not allow us to feed an ever-growing population on less arable land.
We believe that to meet the challenges of the future, we must return to reciprocal ways of food production. We must remember a process where we feed the land while it feeds us; where food represents our relationships – not only with the earth and our environment – but by valuing the people who till the fields and harvest from the seas. We must remember that for thousands of years, the central gesture of hospitality was sharing a meal, however humble, with a traveler, a stranger, or a person in need.
Our new name, Feed The Hunger Fund, changes just one word – from foundation to fund. It is a small change, but one that more accurately reflects our active and vital role in providing renewable sources of capital to food entrepreneurs excluded from traditional methods of financing. Slowly, inexorably, Feed The Hunger Fund brings about change, one borrower, one small system at a time; giving each access to local healthy food.
Our new logo reflects our belief that both the land and the people who till and harvest must have viable alternatives to create a healthy food system. The many layers of the ecosystem that sustain us flow together to provide a renewable cycle of growth – through earth, air and water. And, there are critical parts of this ecosystem that remain unseen, the micronutrients in the soil…the mycelium that allows roots to convert nutrients into fuel for growth…the underground waters from which we drink. They work together, as must we, to sustain ourselves while sustaining the planet.
At Feed The Hunger Fund, we are compassionate capitalizers. We live and breathe food and finance. We believe that by nurturing the diverse gifts and spirit in each of us, we all reap the rewards of long-term change for a better world. Everything we do – lending, coaching, networking – is infused with the spirit of a self-renewing cycle of growth. Always in kinship. Feeding your capacity to accomplish more. From the ground, up.
Please join us in our mission.