WASHINGTON (November 3, 2011) – Every day approximately 633,000 residents in the Washington Metropolitan area are at risk of or experiencing hunger. Howard University’s WHUR 96.3 FM and WHUR-WORLD 96.3 HD2 in partnership with the Capital Area Food Bank (CAFB) will sponsor Food2Feed, a 12-hour radiothon/fundraiser to feed needy families for Thanksgiving at the Old Post Office Pavilion on Thursday, Nov. 17 from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Volunteers will fan out along 12th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue NW, encouraging people to donate.

The Food2Feed broadcast seeks to collect monetary donations and non-perishable food items. The food collected will be presented to the Capital Area Food Bank, the largest, public nonprofit hunger and nutrition education resource in the Washington region. WHUR will use the funds from the “Food2Feed” radiothon to purchase $50 gift cards from Giant Food for the disadvantaged families served by the Capital Area Food Bank.

Each year, the CAFB distributes 20 million pounds of food, including 6 million pounds of fresh produce, to over 700 partner agencies. WHUR will use the donations from the “Food2Feed” radiothon to purchase $50 gift cards from Giant Food to distribute to the Capital Area Food Bank, which will then give those cards to disadvantaged families in the region.

“These are tough economic times and many families are struggling to take care of the basic necessities,” said WHUR and WHUR-WORLD General Manager Jim Watkins. “We want to help and ‘Food2Feed’ is just one of many ways we are giving back to our community.”

The 12-hour broadcast is the culmination of a six-week campaign by the Howard University Radio Network stations educating listeners about the plight of the hungry in the Washington region and abroad.

Additional sponsors of Food2Feed include Howard University, SunTrust Bank Verizon, Giant Food, and Dimensions Healthcare System.

“With the help of our many sponsors and generous listeners, we believe we can make this holiday season a special one for needy families. Hunger is certainly one of those social ills that we all can take an active role in eliminating,” added Watkins.

Donations to the Food2Feed radiothon can easily be made at the broadcast site or online at www.food2feed.org.

WHUR 96.3 FM - Howard University is Washington’s only stand-alone radio station and one of the few University-owned commercial radio stations in America, broadcasting since 1971 to nearly a half million listeners daily in five states and can now be heard around the globe on the web at whur.com. The first radio station in the Washington area to broadcast in HD, WHUR is the recipient of numerous awards including the prestigious NAB Marconi for Best Urban Station of the Year and NAB Crystal Radio Award for Excellence in Community Service.