BLAINE COUNTY HUNGER COALITION

3. Addressing root causes: in order to achieve our vision of a hunger free blaine county, we are strategically addressing root cause issues. Our efforts through our 2025 strategic plan are dedicated to exploring deeper partnerships that affect greater, systemic change. Through this work, we prioritize the entire community over our individual organization and share resources with partner organizations that are providing services for food insecure communities. The hunger coalition team addresses the root causes of hunger to help prevent people from needing food from our organization in the first place. During the reporting period, our team advocated for affordable housing, distributed nonpartisan voter information, led support groups for spanish- speaking communities, advocated for a bilingual family liaison position in the blaine county school district, advocated for public education funding, and encouraged constituents to speak up for summer-ebt or lunch money for low-income kids. In the last year, 380 people in our circle have taken action to address the root causes of hunger as a result of our advocacy efforts. The partner collaboration program upholds our mission to improve collaborative efforts by providing direct support to key partners effectively engaging in root cause work. Root cause work is defined as any activity related to an underlying cause of food insecurity, such as: high cost of living, lack of access to affordable housing, systemic racism, discrimination, immigration and citizenship issues, mental health issues, unexpected financial burdens, lack of access to affordable health care, poverty, unemployment, chronic health issues, etc.

We recently completed a new strategic plan which outlines two key areas for impact: good food access and root causes. We are deploying board-designated assets in order to maximize the long-term impacts for our community. To address immediate needs, we will continue core programs through 2025. In order to achieve our vision of a hunger free blaine county, we are strategically addressing root cause issues. We know addressing complex problems like food insecurity is a massive undertaking and we can't do it alone. We need to combine areas of expertise to be most effective. Our efforts through 2025 will be dedicated to exploring deeper partnerships that affect greater, systemic change. This furthers our transition from charity to solidarity, in collaboration with key partners. Through this work, we prioritize the entire community over our individual organization, foster a sense of belonging and interdependence, present our work not as individual transactions but holistically, and encourage mutual support between nonprofits.