Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan visited the Capital Area Food Bank in northeast Washington this morning, to help highlight the President's United We Serve initiative and encourage Americans to serve their communities.
She also spoke directly to USDA employees, who are encouraged to participate in the Feds Feed Families program through August by bringing food to work:
Merrigan, joined by Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, reiterated the President's pledge to end childhood hunger by 2015 -- and the importance of the nation's food banks in that effort. At the same time, she noted, summer is often the hardest time for food banks to gather the resources they need to help the community.
This summer, that's one problem the Obama Administration is hoping to address as it kicks off the United We Serve program. When people find a local project, whether it's helping to gather food for a food bank, building a family a home, or working to clean up a park, everyone benefits. And although the hurdles are sometimes high, the Deputy Secretary and other attendees' summer Hawaiian shirts served as a reminder that volunteering this summer, with friends, family and neighbors, can be fun at the same time.
