Community Council of St. Charles County

Childhood hunger is an often invisible problem; yet, one Missouri non-profit is raising awareness with the use of custom golf visors. The sad truth is that for struggling families, the summertime lapse in free or reduced school lunches can be devastating. The problem is exacerbated by a drop in food pantry donations during the summer, where shelves often go bare. For the Community Council of St. Charles County in Missouri, imprinted visors are helping make the problem visible and addressing these issues attainable. As a recipient of a 4imprint® one by one® grant, Community Council of St. Charles County was able to order Lightweight Value Visors in lime green for volunteers for their annual food drive, Shop Out Hunger. The promotional products made their volunteers both highly visible and credible, according to Pam Raines, director of development and community relations. “It was so helpful because every volunteer had a visor and as you approached the store you could see the Shop Out Hunger people right away because they had the visors on,” she explained. “This was very cost-effective, and we were able to get enough for the volunteers, which was great.” In past years, the group has ordered custom printed T-shirts for event volunteers, an exercise anyone will tell you can be complex with size considerations. The custom golf visors took the sizing work out of the mix. “It was a great way for us to provide the volunteers with a little gift, but also everybody looked consistent, and when people went to the stores, they would recognize our volunteers right away.” The results of the food drive helped restock regional food pantries. In all, 24 stores in a three-county region participated, 20 food pantries received donations, and 293 volunteers collected cash and food donations…each wearing a lime green custom golf visor. In the end, the effort raised more than $4,000 and more than 31,000 pounds of food for the pantries. That makes a real difference for the hungry in the area. “Every year the pantries tell us when Shop Out Hunger comes around, their shelves are pretty much bare and it is a necessity to restock.” Raines says, “This helps them through the summer and gives them a jump start on the fall before the holiday food drives.”