September is the celebration of National Hunger Action Month and Senator Creigh Deeds combined politics and volunteering during the kick off to raise more awareness about hunger and food insecurity. Food Bank for Central Northeast Missouri led the kickoff along with Columbia's Chamber of Commerce by unveiling a 16 foot massive orange spoon that weighs 212 lbs last Tuesday. This orange giant spoon will sit near the entrance of the building for the entire month in to get the word about hunger.
Hullet Heating and Air Conditioning built and donated the spoon to Food Bank. According to Kimberly Kent, special events coordinator for the Food Bank, it took 11 hours to build the orange massive spoon. Mike DeSantis, the communications coordinator for the Food Bank, said it has contacted Guinness World Records to claim the record for the world's largest orange spoon.
According to Feeding America, the spoon will promote "Spoontember", a social media campaign by the non profit organization. The Food Bank is actually working with Feeding America to promote Hunger Action Month which aims to raise awareness about people living in hunger. According to Feed America, one out of six Americans suffers from hunger. Each month, the Food Bank serves 114,000 people in 32 counties. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture in their 2013 survey, an average of 16.9% of Missouri households experienced food insecurity between 2011 and 2013. That percentage is higher than the national average, which is 14.6%.
A photo posted by AmpleHarvest.org (@ampleharvest) on Sep 1, 2015 at 8:07am PDT
As part of the campaign, people who were present during the unveiling ceremony were encouraged to take a selfie or a "spoonie" while balancing the orange plastic spoons given to them. Additionally, the orange colour of the spoons reinforces the colour Feeding America also uses.
According to NBC New, Senatr Creigh Deeds showed up in the event to learn how the food banks operates and also acted as a volunteer and helped serve people in need. He first had a meeting with the members of the food bank and afterwards helped loading bags with canned goods.
In another report by the Missourian, Elder Brian Dickert, a Mormon volunteer at the Food Bank, thinks that the big spoon would remind people the significance of Food Bank in the community. "This is a really good place," he said. "Lots of people just don't really know about it."
