Mazda Drive for Good Fights Hunger with Move for Hunger

It started with a simple question, “Do you want to donate your food?” And from there, it exploded: from the first donation of 300 pounds of food in 2009 to more than 7.5 million pounds donated as of 2016, the nonprofit Move for Hunger has helped food banks and pantries nationwide feed some of the millions of Americans who, otherwise, would go hungry every day.

Now, thanks to a $10,000 donation from Mazda Drive for Good, Move for Hunger will be able to expand its mission to fight hunger.

Adam Lowy, the founder and executive director of Move for Hunger, grew up working for his family’s moving company.

“We saw people throwing away all sorts of things when they moved. Food, clothing, furniture, you name it,” he said. “What bothered us was the perfectly good, unopened, nonperishable food that people were just leaving behind.”

So Lowy asked, “Do you want to donate your food?” And everything they collected when they moved someone, they donated to their local food bank.

When he started, Lowy knew nothing about hunger, or food waste, or even how to run a nonprofit, but he did research and discovered a common problem all over the country.

“There are 50 million Americans who don’t have enough to eat. That number includes 17 million children,” Lowy said. “And at the same time, 40 percent of all food we produce in this country ends up in the trash. And to me that’s just crazy.”

Now, Move for Hunger has partnered with more than 700 moving companies across the United States and Canada, and in turn, these moving companies have partnered with local food banks to help the hungry.

With the help of the donation from Mazda Drive for Good, Move for Hunger will be able to pursue new initiatives, such as partnering with apartment communities. They will also be able to further expand existing resources to its moving partners and individuals who run food drives.