26th Annual Walk for Hunger

We are just about 2 weeks away from the 26th Annual Walk for Hunger which means it's go time! I'm dusting off my walkin' shoes, the teams are fundraising and all logistics are being finalized. This year is shaping up to be quite an exciting one with all my favorites will be there....will you?!

We will be kicking-off the the Walk for Hunger at 9:30AM sharp at Burke Lakefront Airport with our hosts Reporter Ed Gallek and Meteorologist Jeff Tanchak from 19 Action News. Day of Registration for teams and individuals begins at 8:45AM that morning. Make sure you arrive in plenty of time to turn in final donations, pick-up your Walk t-shirt and say 'HI' to me and my friends! In addition to Ed & Jeff, Moondog from the Cleveland Cavaliers, Sully from the Lake Erie Monsters and Ernie the Keebler Elf will be there to greet walkers! After our warm up with Jazzercise Judy, we will step off to head through downtown at 10:00AM. Check out the pictures I took of my stroll on the route this weekend - it was beautiful with many exciting hot spots in the CLE! Lots of great scenery - both old and new! Remember everyone is invited so bring your family, friends, kids and dogs to enjoy a leisurely, non-competitive walk through our city.

After we've made our way through the city, we'll cross over the Finish Line at Voinovich Park and head into our After Party Family Social! Lunch will be provided from Mr. Hero, a kids craft tent sponsored by PatCatan's and even live music. New this year, we'll be handing out seed packets to everyone crossing the Finish Line. After all. we  want to thank everyone who shares in our commitment to PLANTING THE SEED TO STOP HUNGER!

Hard to believe that the 26th Annual Walk for Hunger will be here so quickly on Saturday, May 10th - so, don't miss out and sign up today at HungerNetwork.org! We hope that our supporters can unite to raise funds and awareness for our mission. Be part of the movement by committing to help feed the growing need in our Cleveland community.

See photos from 2013's Walk for Hunger here!

Help BLACKOUT Hunger!

Tomorrow afternoon we are going to BLACK OUT HUNGER with the CSU Viking - join us! I'll be heading to the Wolstein Center for the 2:00PM game as the Cleveland State University Vikings take on the Valparaiso University Crusaders for an awesome annual rivalry.

I'll be at the game early, along with some wonderful volunteers accepting non-perishable, canned foods items for our hunger centers. With a donation of 5 items, guests will receive a discounted ticket into the men's basketball game! But, don't be late - the first 2,000 fans will receive official BLACK OUT t-shirts...who doesn't love a free t-shirt?!

And, there's more! Are you a CSU season ticket holder? If so, bring canned food items to the game and receive a 30% off coupon for the book store. Now is the time to stock up on new Viking swag!!

We are so grateful to the Cleveland State Athletics Team for their support and efforts in planning this awesome event. We cannot wait for tomorrow's game to partner with the Vikings as we collect food and raise awareness for our mission! Please join us, Cleveland!!

Thank You December Supporters!

What a wonderful December it was! The Hunger Network has been so blessed to have gracious supporters like all of you....we've been busy, but busy is good when it means funds are being raised and food is being donated.

Crocker Park in Westlake hosted a 4-week food drive to benefit the Hunger Network! Located in their hoilday-themed Toy Train Town, volunteers accepted donations of non-perishable food items, hygiene products and monetary donations Saturday afternoons. As an appreciation of their support, donors received tickets to an exciting Cleveland sporting event! Donations were distributed to 4 selected hunger centers within the Network. We are so grateful for the sponsors of this food drive, including: Crocker Park, Fox 8, Q104's Fee's Company, Cleveland Gladiators, Lake Erie Monsters and our wonderful volunteers from Majestic Steel USA.

Other exciting events and drives included a golf outing, concert and sale!
-The 14th Annual Turkey Trot hosted on Thanksgiving morning at Canterbury Golf Club - it was a record breaking year in many ways. Not only was it the snowiest Turkey Open yet, but also the largest turn out AND most money raised! Over $6,000 - thank you to Board Member, David Weiner and Benesch Law who served as our gracious hosts.

-WJCU, 87.7 hosted the 9th Annual Blizzard Bash at Happy Dog in Tremont - a fun-filled evening of great music by local bands all for a good cause. They also broke a record with most money raised reaching $3,000 for the Hunger Network.
-"Brie for the Holidays" - another generous fundraiser for the HNGC, donated by caterer Sue Stewart and friends. Fancy wheels of brie were available for purchase by donation made to one of two identified non-profits. This year, the Hunger Network was selected and gratefully received over $3,000 for the project.

There are more wonderful stories of bountiful donations from loyal donors...such as Nordstrom's massive food drive, the team at Bike Cleveland who hosted Cranksgiving, and the Winter Warm Up team at Cumulus Entertainment.
We simply wanted to share a few, and most importantly THANK YOU for all you have done to support the Hunger Network in 2013. Whether isn't participating in the Walk for Hunger, attending a party or making a generous donation, such as the ones listed above, we could not continue to be successful without your support. 60,000 Greater Clevelanders received food each month because of supporters like you!

New Website!

Everyone here at the Hunger Network is extremely excited and honored to unveil our new website!

Visit HungerNetwork.org ....it may have the same name, but it now has a totally new look and feel. We hope you find it impactful and easier to navigate. We did our best to layout the new design to be user-friendly and fun, while still sharing all of the important information and news on fighting hunger here in our Cleveland community.

The mission of the Hunger Network is who we are and defines what we do every day; therefore we felt it important to include front and center on the new website. From there, you can dive further into all aspect of our organization - from our programs to our events to oodles of media resources. We will constantly be updating the website, so please check back periodically for new information.

I think my favorite part is the Newsroom - it's where we get to show-off just a little. This is where you can find oodles of media resources, photos and even videos from our adventures here at the Hunger Network. New items will be added weekly...so, don't be a stranger!

This new website would not have been possible without our new friends at GlobalCloud, the makers of DonorDrive. They guided us as we strived to make our vision become a reality. The new website is truly a labor of LOVE:

...get it? A labor of LOVE!!

We hope you enjoy it as much as we do...and please send feedback. We would love to hear what you think of our new look!

Blizzard Bash 2013

Only 1 Week Away!

Next Friday, Nov. 22nd is the annual Blizzard Bash! A huge concert produced by WJCU, a noncommercial broadcast station owned by John Carroll University. The 88.7 team is a dedicated group of individuals & students. They annually team up with the Hunger Network to host the Blizzard Bash in an effort to give back to the community by fighting hunger.

This year's event will be held at Happy Dog and doors open at 9:00 PM. The show starts at 9:30, and you won't want to miss a minute of the concert featuring Welshly Arms! A minimum donation of $5 will be collected at the door...and that all goes back to the Hunger Network to provide food for the hungry right here in our Cleveland community.

Now is when the Hunger Network needs help the most. With the Holidays here, your support is crucial as we strive to feed hungry children and families this holiday season.

We hope to see you at Happy Dog, located at 5801 Detroit Ave, Cleveland next Friday for the annual Blizzard Bash!

Feed the Children

How is it November already?!
Busy times here at the Hunger Network, this past month we had a great time hosting our Treasured Donors Reception, all 4 of our event committee meetings and even redid our website! We will be launching the new website very soon...so stay tuned!

One of my favorite activities this past month was the FEED THE CHILDREN program. The Cleveland Cavaliers organization sponsored a truck of boxes filled with non-perishable food items and other basic essentials for our clients. The truck delivered over 400 boxes, 9,638 lbs of badly needed goods last week, and on Friday morning we were able to deliver these items to 200 of our Cleveland neighbors that needed them the most.

We all met at one of our hunger center sites, the May Dugan Center, to distribute the donations. The Cleveland Cavaliers sent their ticket sales team, an awesome group of 20 enthusiastic young professionals that came ready to work hard! My friends Moon Dog & Sir CC were also there, along with members of their dance team, called the Scream Team, and some Cavs Girls. They quickly formed an assembly line in order to serve our clients quickly and efficiently. Each client received 3 boxes; 1 box contained non-perishable foods and the other 2 boxes contained basic goods. The Cavs crew helped each client carry these generous gifts down the stairs.

Clients were so grateful for these donations and were in high spirits as they picked up the boxes. Some even danced with the Scream Team - check out us learning the moves to Michael Jackson's Thriller, lead by the experts!



It was a wonderful way to kick off the holiday season of giving. This is a time when our neighbors need us the most. 1 in 6 children in Greater Cleveland go to bed hungry each night. Help us put food on their tables at this crucial time.

A huge thank you to the Cleveland Cavaliers organization and everyone that made it all possible!
Check out more pictures on Moondog's Flckr and Sir CC's Flickr!

To learn more about the Feed the Children program and how to sponsor a truck for the Hunger Network, visit www.FeedtheChildren.org.

ROTR13 Wrap Up

On September 20th - we threw one heck of a party! The Friends of the Hunger Network hosted the 7th Annual Rolling on the River event for Cleveland's finest young professionals.

The party was held at Windows on the River on the West Bank of the Flats and drew the largest crowd yet! It truly was 'Lucky #7!" The crowd of 385 gathered to enjoy a night for of casino-gaming, eating, drinking and socializing. Together, the city united to raise over $55,000 for the Hunger Network of Greater Cleveland. As you know, for every dollar raise, the Hunger Network can serve 4 meals in one of their 100 hunger centers - that means this event raised enough for over 220,000 meals!! That's amazing!

Cocktailing for a cause, I'll always be up for that!

The night started off with a bang - once you registered with a volunteer from Microsoft [on their high-tech and very cool tablets] you were on the red carpet that for a quick picture, then led in to never-ending fun inside the ballroom. There was a huge silent auction featuring the coolest things in Cleveland, and there was even a raffle called the Boat Load of Booze! It was a boat full of bottles of wine, liquors, beers - you name it! There was over 150 tickets sold and 1 lucky winner took it all home - lucky guy.

We were entertained all night, even if we weren't gambling - there was an amazing magician, performances by Frank, Dean & Then Some and even a 50/50. There was another photo opportunity inside with a green screen from Mystic Image. It was awesome!

Dinner was delicious, but the best part was dessert! It was beautiful cupcakes donated from Topped With Buttercream cupcakes...yum!

There were so many people there, from groups of friends, coworkers from the sponsors and the team from Q104's Fee's Kompany - they were the celebrity hosts and rocked on stage.

You can check out photos from the event on our Facebook page here, and don't forget to like our page while you're there!

And, mark your calendars for our next event, the 24th Annual Best Party of the Year...now these folks know how to "get down!!" They love to dance...you won't want to miss it.