Two-year project donates 648,000 meals
67 meal-packing events. 2,300 Modern Woodmen volunteers. 648,000 meals.
Over the past two years, Modern Woodmen of America, a fraternal financial services organization, has organized meal-packing events with employees and financial representatives throughout the country in an effort to address food insecurity in the United States.
In America, approximately 1 in 7 households experiences food insecurity. For American households with children, the statistic jumps to nearly 1 in 5. (USDA Economic Research Service, 2014)
"When we learned how many people in the United States experience hunger, we were stunned," says W. Kenny Massey, Modern Woodmen's president and CEO. "We knew we had to take action."
Modern Woodmen's Knock Out Hunger campaign began in 2014 at the organization's home office in Rock Island, Illinois. About 390 home office employees organized and participated in a meal-packing event, which produced 50,000 meals for River Bend Foodbank in Davenport, Iowa. The employees also collected more than 2,500 pounds of food, donated $15,609.49 to River Bend Foodbank and spent more than 965 hours volunteering for the cause.
The project was then introduced to regional directors of Modern Woodmen offices across the country during an annual conference last January. The regional directors, who packed and donated 50,000 meals with their families during the conference, were encouraged to organize meal-packing events with the financial representatives in their home states.
The response was incredible. The regional offices held 65 events. More than 1,700 financial representatives and family members volunteered, packing and donating 548,000 meals to nearly 250 community food pantries throughout the country.
"Our goal was to pack 500,000 meals this year," notes Massey. "Thanks to the overwhelming support of our employees and representatives, we knocked it out of the park."
"Our overall support and enthusiasm for this project was tremendous," he adds. "I can't wait to see what the next year will bring."
As a tax-exempt fraternal benefit society, Modern Woodmen sells life insurance, annuity and investment* products not to benefit stockholders, but to improve the quality of life of its stakeholders - members, their families and their communities. This is accomplished through social, charitable and volunteer activities. In 2014, Modern Woodmen and its members provided more than $19 million and nearly 437,000 volunteer hours for community projects nationwide.
* Securities offered through MWA Financial Services Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Modern Woodmen of America
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For more information about Knock Out Hunger or Modern Woodmen, contact Michelle Opsahl, 309-793-5660, Michelle.Opsahl@modern-
