Coalition of the Willing: Celebrity Chef Carla Hall Helps Highlight Local Food Security Project

And on Tuesday afternoon it received some high-powered help. Celebrity chef and motivational speaker Carla Hall visited Hormel Foods World Headquarters to help pack food for the Hometown Food Security Project’s backpack program, a coalition of groups working locally to combat hunger.

Hall, who can be seen on the Food Network, walked down the line with Hormel employees where she helped get the food ready to be taken home by over 600 students in Mower County this Friday.

“Community awareness is 90% of the issue, so when the community realizes it can take care of its own and realize you’re taking care of your neighbor and getting everyone involved, that’s how we change it,” Hall said. “It’s not on the backs of an organization, it’s not on the backs of the government. It’s truly the community coming together.”

United Way of Mower County Executive Director Molly Lanke said that having recognizable names like Hall associated with events like this, where the community is coming together is equally important.

“It’s a great way to bring awareness to food insecurity,” Lanke said. “We know our community is supportive of it, but we need to get together to do a packing event like this to ensure we all have skin in the game.”

Collaboration is the name of the game and driving force behind the Hometown Food Security Project’s mission to close the gap of food insecurity. Lanke said that in Mower County alone 1 and 10 people and 1 in 7 children are food insecure.

To help combat that, the UW of Mower County and Hormel Foods has formed a collaboration of other local groups to drive that effort.