Actor David Arquette draws attention to Bar Hunger campaign

Although the fact is often underestimated, there is a significant number of people in the U.S. who face hunger each day.  According to Bread for the World, 35.5 million people (including 12.6 million children) in the United States are faced with hunger or the risk of hunger.

On July 14th and 15th, the organization Feeding America (formerly America’s Second Harvest), promoted a new corporate partnership with Snickers, called Bar Hunger by having actor David Arquette stay in a plexiglass box on the top of the Madison Square Garden marquee in New York City.

The Bar Hunger campaign aims to provide 3 million meals through food banks in the United States.  Snickers also announced that it will match monetary donations made to the campaign, up to $25,000 dollars.

Last week, the Obama administration announced new initiatives designed to improve food safety in the United States, which has had some high profile incidents of contamination in the past year.

First, the White House has established a new website, www.foodsafety.gov as a “Gateway to Government Food Safety Information.”  The website serves as a clearinghouse of food safety information from the U.S. government, linking documents and resources from the FDA, CDC, Department of Agriculture, National Institute for Allergies and Infectious Diseases, and others - in an attempt to provide citizens’ with information on preventing and reporting food safety issues.

The second major announcement concerned the planned establishment of a Deputy Commissioner for Foods at the FDA to directly oversee and coordinate government responses to reports of food contamination.

In the same press conference, the administration offered new details for bolstering the safety of the country’s egg products, which are particularly susceptible to salmonella contamination.