JOIN THE POUND FOR POUND CHALLENGE

Pound For Pound Challenge to inspire Oregon residents to Eat Healthy—Be Active

PORTLAND, Ore. (January 6, 2010) – Join the Pound for Pound Challenge and help fight hunger in Oregon.

NBC’s The Biggest Loser, General Mills, Subway, 24 Hour Fitness and Feeding America are partnering on the Pound For Pound Challenge, a program that encourages residents in Oregon and Americans across the country to lose weight nationally to help provide hunger relief locally

To join the Challenge, visit www.PFPChallenge.com or www.BiggestLoser.com and enter your weight loss goals. For every pound of weight participants pledge to lose, the Pound For Pound Challenge will donate 14 cents to Feeding America – enough to deliver one pound of groceries to a local food bank – up to a maximum donation of $800,000.

Each person who pledges can be matched with a local Feeding America food bank nearest their residence, and donations will be delivered to those food banks when the Challenge ends.  St. Vincent de Paul Food Recovery Network , which includes our Food Bank, Mobile Kitchen, Food for Kids program and  our Emergency Services food box program, is a Feeding America partner.

“For St. Vincent de Paul Food Recover Network, the Pound for Pound Challenge creates opportunities  to make healthy choices about what we eat and our level of physical activity.  We are sensitive to the fact that many low-income households across NW Oregon do not always have access to healthy, nutritious foods,” said Sharon Hills, Executive Director. “It’s becoming increasingly difficult for us to meet the needs of our members and Conferences, especially when new clients arrive all the time. This is especially sobering when you consider that our network provided record-breaking amounts of assistance this past year. Our Food Bank has added two new programs to meet the needs of underserved rural areas. Our Mobile Kitchen has served 9,445 meals; Food for Kids 3,650 food packages; distributed 9,785 senior suppliemental food boxes; Food Bank distruted 1,872,747 pounds of food; emergency assistance for rent and utilities is over $1,140.556, providing well over 300,000 services last year.

A recent report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture found that the rate of hunger in Oregon and the United States rose significantly last year. Oregon, ranks second in the nation in the percentage of people experiencing hunger. In total, more than 49 million Americans struggled to get enough to eat at some point in 2008, the highest total in 14 years.

In addition to pledging to lose weight, at www.PFPChallenge.comyou can create a PFP Challenge team on Facebook, invite a friend to join the Challenge via e-mail and learn how you can volunteer at local food banks. To learn more and to join the Challenge, visit www.PFPChallenge.com.

The program is built around the success of The Biggest Loser, a reality show that challenges and encourages overweight contestants to shed pounds through diet and exercise.