The Food Bank for Westchester will draw attention to hunger in the county and the nation with a series of events this month as part of Feeding America”™s Hunger Action Month, a campaign to help end hunger in America.
The Elmsford-based Food Bank is one of eight regional food banks in New York in the Feeding America network.
Food Bank staff and volunteers this Thursday will wear orange, a color representing hunger relief, to mark Hunger Action Day across the nation. The nonprofit urges community residents to do the same and send their photos to info@foodbankforwestchester.org for posting on its Facebook page, which also will be colored orange for the nationwide Feeding America event.
The county food bank will post Hunger Action Month activities throughout September on its social media outlets.
Ellen Lynch, executive director of Food Bank for Westchester, said the nonprofit will host its annual  Agency Day on Sept. 18, inviting nearly 200 hunger-relief member agencies “to come together to learn how to better serve the community and strengthen hunger relief.”
“We cannot fight every factor affecting hunger, but we can start here in Westchester by creating awareness about the issue,” Lynch said in a press release.
The Food Bank estimates that one in five Westchester County residents are hungry or at risk of being hungry. Of the approximately 200,000 residents included in that estimate, one-third are children and 22 percent are over the age of 60, according to Food Bank officials.
Nationwide, 49 million people struggle with hunger, according to Feeding America. “There is more than enough food to feed every man, woman and child in this country, yet one in six Americans are facing hunger,” said Bob Aiken, CEO of the national organization, in a press release. “By raising awareness and working together, we can solve hunger.”
The Food Bank for Westchester also provides other opportunities for the community to help fight hunger with organized food drives to benefit the nonprofit and with volunteer work at its warehouse.
More information about Hunger Action Month can be found online at hungeractionmonth.org.
