Hunger Relief Exchange

Current estimates of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations indicate that over 840 million people suffering from hunger globally, 800 million of them in the developing world and around 10 million in countries in transition. Even in economically stable countries hunger continues to be a problem - America's Second Harvest (the largest hunger organization in the United States) estimates that there are over 30 million Americans who live with hunger.

At the same time, never before in the history of the world has so much food been produced. If all the food produced globally this year were divided equally among the world's inhabitants, global food production would provide each person with 2800 calories per day, an increase of 17 percent over levels 30 years ago. And this has been possible despite the fact that over the same period the population has grown by 70 percent. Even in developing countries, where population has doubled, per capita food production has still increased by 30 percent over the past 30 years. Unfortunately, much of the food produced globally often is never consumed and goes to waste. In the United States, over 96 billion pounds of food goes to waste - equivalent to 250 truck loads every five minutes.

Because hunger is an ongoing global problem, and because the reduction of hunger is so clearly challenged by the difficulties of getting available food onto the tables of hungry people efficiently and without waste, Aidmatrix decided to focus initially on providing tools for Hunger Relief. The first system with the North Texas Food Bank went live in July of 2001. In 2002, Aidmatrix began its partnership with America's Second Harvest - The Nation's Food Bank Network (A2H) to provide DonorExpress and AgencyExpress solutions - and was awarded as Technology Donor of the Year. In addition, with the launch of the fundraising tool, The Virtual Aid Drive™, many non-profit and for-profit organizations have collected monetary donations totalling millions of dollars, for the purchase of needed aid item. The United Nations World Food Programme who uses the tool as part of their School Feeding Programme fundraising initiatives. Recently, Aidmatrix has agreed to be one of the initial supporters of the Global Foodbanking Network, supporting the organization's efforts to further food banking efforts around the globe. With thousands of agencies in countries on 3 continents using Aidmatrix hunger solutions, Aidmatrix is a proud partner with some of the world's leading organizations in the fight against hunger.