Business Can Help Feed Children in Need—But Not Alone

Our food system needs radical reinvention, and, unfortunately, children are at the highest risk. Somewhere in the world, every ten seconds, a child dies from hunger-related disease. Even in America, one out of five children will go to sleep tonight hungry or food-insecure. However, no single organization can address this issue alone. We must form public-private partnerships to collectively improve children’s health.

Leveraging the model popularized by John Kania and Mark Kramer in the Stanford Social Innovation Review, we are using a collective impactmethodology to improve the health and well being of our young neighbors in communities where our employees live and work. The authors define “collective impact” as a framework for cross-sector leaders to forge a shared vision and solve specific social issues. They state five core characteristics: a common agenda, shared measurement system, mutually reinforcing activities, continuous communication and backbone support.