Hunger Programs

Historically efforts to alleviate hunger in the United States have been initiated and supported by both private and public sectors of society. Nearly every faith-based organization in America provides funds or direct services for feeding the hungry. The Salvation Army, for example, began providing food aid with its first mission to the United States in 1880. Other major, nonprofit charitable groups include Meals on Wheels, begun in 1954 to provide food to the country’s homebound residents, and Second Harvest, the nation’s largest domestic hunger-relief organization, which operates as a network of over two-hundred food banks and food-rescue programs.