I am teaming up with Safeway to help raise awareness and funds for childhood hunger in America. Please consider helping.

My kids and I have been talking a lot lately about those less fortunate than ourselves that don’t have a safe home or enough to eat. We see a lot more homelessness in Portland than we did in our little suburb of Boston, so it’s only natural that my kids have more questions and concerns. I’ve been so touched and so impressed by their feelings on the matter, as they truly want to both understand and to help where they can. After discussing it frequently over the summer, I helped them put together little packets of non-perishable food, along with a few dollars, to give out to some of the people in need we see on the street. It may be a small gesture, but I am very proud that they feel this deep desire to give.

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But we’ve also been discussing the needs of those that aren’t quite so visible, quite so obvious. The needs of children who may be going hungry. They are beginning to understand that not all of their classmates are as fortunate as they are. They know that the school system has a free lunch program, and that some of the local grocery stores donate leftover food for families in need. It’s hard for them, in their innocence, to fully conceive but they are beginning to recognize that childhood hunger is a serious issue in our world.

For the month of September, the Albertsons Safeway family of stores is running a “Hunger Is” campaign in aid of childhood hunger. The goal is to raise awareness, volunteer hours, and funds for connecting needy families to healthy food. I want to do my part to help drive awareness, both at home and in the wider public. One in five children in America live in households without adequate food. That’s a shocking 20% of kids who are going hungry and it’s simply heartbreaking.

There are two ways you can help. If you have a Safeway or an Albertson’s in your area, you may be able to donate right at the register. The cashiers in participating areas (Eastern, Intermountain, Northern California, Southwest, Shaws/Star) will ask you if you’d like to donate, and I sincerely hope you will.

Some of the participating brands that will donate a meal for each product purchased.

But you can also support the cause by purchasing products from participating brands, who will donate a meal for every product purchased. Participating brands include Con Agra (Marie Calender’s, Healthy Choice, Bertolli’s and PF Changs brands), Coke, Unilever, Kellogg’s and Campbell’s.

My kids and I thought of a great way to maximize our strategy in helping families and children in need. We decided to identify some non-perishable food products from the participating brands and purchase those, and then turn around and give them to our local food bank. In this manner, we hope we can double up on helping those less fortunate than ourselves. Check out all the participating products you can purchase at your local Albertsons Safeway stores.

Please consider identifying your local participating stores (Albertsons, Safeway, Vons Pavilions, Jewel-Osco, Randalls, United Supermarkets, Tom Thumb, Acme, Star Market, Shaws) and shop there by September 30th. It takes all of us to help relieve childhood hunger.

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Albertsons Safeway . The opinions and text are all mine.