Everyday millions of Americans go without food in neighborhoods across the country. Many programs targeted to address hunger however focus on foreign initiatives instead of domestic programs. The state of Texas, where Liberate Magazine is located, has one of the highest food insecurity rates (individuals that live in hunger or fear of starvation).

Our goal is simple, we seek to reduce the number of hungry individuals and families in America. How are we going to achieve this goal? We are going to start by creating our own programs to address the need and influencing other individuals and organizations to get involved.

We know our vision is great, but our determination is greater. We are going to start this initiative in our home state and native city of Houston. The program will be rolled out in other cities throughout the year. Our Liberate from Hunger™ campaign is as follows:

• We encourage local entrepreneurs to allow us to use their facilities as drop off locations for food (non-perishable items)
• We encourage entrepreneurs to provide gift cards to grocery stores for needy families
• We will give out food at the designated locations or a central location bi-weekly
• We will partner with local organizations, churches, shelters and programs to identify needy families
• The program will be a year round program
• Once a quarter, we will partner with a community organization to provide hot meals to the homeless

• 35.5 million people lived in households considered to be food insecure.
• Of these 35.5 million, 22.9 million are adults (10.4 percent of all adults in America) and 12.6 million are children (17.2 percent of all children in America).
• The number of people in the worst-off households increased to 11.1 from 10.8 in 2005. This increase in the number of people in the worst-off category is consistent with other studies and the Census Bureau poverty data, which show worsening conditions for the poorest Americans.
• Black (21.8 percent) and Hispanic (19.5 percent) households experienced food insecurity at far higher rates than the national average.
• The ten states with the highest food insecurity rates in 2006 were Mississippi, New Mexico, Texas, South Carolina, Oklahoma, Utah, Louisiana, Arkansas, Kentucky, and Arizona.