Wyoming Hunger Initiative, Led by Jennie Gordon, First Lady of Wyoming, Provides Relief for Those Affected by COVID-19
When Wyoming First Lady, Jennie Gordon, chose food insecurity as her initiative, she didn't know what a profound impact her work would have when faced with the COVID-19 pandemic.
In these challenging times, our cooperative principle of Concern for Community has greater meaning than ever before. Across our cooperative family, amazing work is being done by businesses, organizations, and individuals to support our communities in this time of need. As part of this series, we highlight those outstanding people who have gone above and beyond.
Jennie launched the Wyoming Hunger Initiative to address the food insecurity and childhood hunger throughout Wyoming. In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, people from across Wyoming have been impacted and face many challenges, including food insecurity. The Wyoming Hunger Initiative has worked to ensure critical resources are available to assist vulnerable populations across the state during the outbreak and continue to work with local food banks to support those in need.
To learn how Jennie and the Wyoming Hunger Initiative are helping during COVID-19, watch the video below.
Wyoming Hunger Initiative Provides A Network of Support Across Wyoming During COVID-19
"Times like these are very unprecedented. We're all just one emergency away from being in need." - Jennie Gordon, First Lady of Wyoming
Jennie Gordon: Feeding a child today really is investing in that child. It's giving them a future.
I'm Jennie Gordon and I'm the First Lady of Wyoming. I am here in the capital, Cheyenne. Both of my parents grew up in abject poverty so as a child, I was always taught to be very thankful for everything you had, to never waste anything, and to also give back to others if you were so fortunate as to have extra.
I really didn't realize there was a lot of hunger in Wyoming until I started traveling around and ran into a friend who was doing Friday food bags. The teachers noticed in the schools that kids would oftentimes just have on meal in school, and so they were packing bags for the weekend so they would have food. I chose it as the initiative and we started just hitting any pantry, any organization that was working on food insecurity and got a grant system ready to hand out.
But with the COVID-19 hitting, we realized immediately that we really needed to have some relief for folks that were gonna be hit really hard by the shutdown. We got together and designed the website so that they could get on and click and see where their child's lunches were going to be delivered, what time they would be delivered.
We've had $20 donations, $10 donations. People just really want to help and give any amount they can, so it's really heartwarming to see.
Times like these are very unprecedented. We're all just one emergency away from being in need, and hunger is something that can last way longer than just that short period of time that maybe you don't get something to eat. It's a burden not only to them, but to our entire society, and se we can do it now or we can pay for it later.
Go to www.nohungerwyo.org
People are there. They wanna help. They have wonderful, healthy food and fresh fruits and vegetables for you.
COVID-19 Community Response
As a family of electric cooperatives and public power districts, our distribution members reach consumers at the end of the line, many of whom have been directly impacted by COVID-19. To learn about our response, how our members are responding and the amazing work being done in communities across the West, watch our videos and read the articles here.
About Tri-State
Tri-State is a not-for-profit cooperative of 46 members, including 43 member utility electric distribution cooperatives and public power districts in four states, that together deliver reliable, affordable and responsible power to more than a million electricity consumers across nearly 200,000 square miles of the West. For more information about Tri-State and our Responsible Energy Plan, visit www.tristate.coop.