Born of spontaneity, XHunger aims to eliminate food insecurity while having fun
All photos courtesy of XHunger
He doesn’t remember where his thoughts had drifted, but Jimmy Buckner remembers that elbow.
The Knoxville native had recently returned from Florida, and he and his wife, Muffet Testerman-Buckner, were at church when an altar call went out for volunteers to distribute meals to the hungry. Muffet’s elbow broke his woolgathering reverie, and her whispered encouragement would change Buckner’s life:
“‘You ought to go and deliver food,’” he recalled her saying during a recent interview with BLANK Newspaper.
And so were planted the seeds that eventually led to XHunger.com, a Knoxville-based nonprofit that “partners with area food pantries, food banks and similar organizations to help provide their two greatest needs: volunteers and funding,” according to the organization’s website. An initiative that began as the Scarecrow Foundation, it grew from those early mobile meal deliveries, when Buckner’s eyes were opened to the fact that food insecurity affects East Tennesseans regardless of age, race, sexual identity, religion or lack of religion.
“I started out delivering food twice a week for FISH [Hospitality Pantries], and we would go to about five or six places every time,” Buckner said. “When you do that several times a month, 12 months a year, for seven years, you see such humility. You see people who are needing to reach out and get help just to put food on the table for themselves and their families, and it’s humbling. It really made me stop and think, because I’ve never had to worry about putting food on the table.”
According to the website America’s Health Rankings, compiled by the United Health Foundation, from the years 2017 to 2019, 12.5 percent of Tennessee households were unable to provide adequate food for one or more members of that household due to a lack of resources. (By comparison, the national average was 11.1 percent.) Second Harvest Food Bank of East Tennessee, one of the pantries served by XHunger, reports that up to 200,000 East Tennesseans are “at risk” from hunger, uncertain of where their next meal might come from.
Like many people, Buckner never gave those neighbors much thought: They were statistics without a face until he found himself knocking on their doors, handing over meals that may not have seemed all that special to individuals whose experience with hunger is limited to a case of the late-night munchies. But to recipients on the other side of doors across the Knoxville area, they were literally the only sources of sustenance that they would have all day.
“I would go into neighborhoods in greater Knoxville that perhaps people who have lived here their entire lives have never been, but it could be any type of neighborhood: apartments, motel rooms, white collar homes, even people on the run,” he said. “It’s very interesting where you take the food, and people will say all the time that these pantries are being taken advantage of, but that’s just not the case. Very few people took advantage of that generosity, because the vast majority of them were truly hungry.”
XHunger is one of the beneficiaries of Second Bell Music Festival, the signature BLANK Newspaper event that takes place this year on Sept. 30 and Oct. 1 at Suttree Landing Park in South Knoxville. Through Beaty Chevrolet, one of XHunger’s corporate supporters, a new Chevrolet Sonic will be given away to a high school or college student who is a member of or is interested in launching an XHunger Club – an affiliated partnership with the parent nonprofit that’s now spread to Arizona State, the University of Florida and other schools where club leaders organize members to assist local food pantries in a similar fashion as XHunger does for pantries in Knoxville.
That XHunger has grown into the organization it is today is a testament to the impact those early food deliveries had on him, Buckner said.
“I got tapped on the shoulder by Harry Wade and Bill Landry, the co-chairmen of FISH Hospitality Pantries, and because I was in the bar business, they asked me to join their team,” he said. “So we accomplished that, and at the end of that journey, it was so much fun that I looked at a few of the people around me and said, ‘Hey, why don’t we help more pantries?’”
Wade would become part of the initial board for The Scarecrow Foundation, established in 2010 as a zero-budget organization run completely by volunteers. From the beginning, Buckner said, he, Wade and the founding members of the board – Shelia Watson, Bill Regas, Cindi DeBusk and Charles Fels – wanted every dollar raised to go to the pantries they aimed to assist. And if they had a good time while doing so? All the better – hence the tagline “Entertainment With a Purpose,” which explains how XHunger has become an integral partner to events like Second Bell and the recently held NewGround Music Festival.
“I think people are fundamentally good, and they have good intentions of helping, but people are busy,” Buckner said. “It’s hard for some people to find that extra time to turn intention into action. When all of us can find that little bit of extra time to volunteer, then it definitely opens your eyes and opens your heart to help people who are dealing with food insecurity. From the beginning, whenever we would do an event, our goal was to raise awareness in order to get more volunteers, more resources and more donations to the pantries.
“That’s what we do – support existing pantries. We’re not going to build one, because there are already plenty of them out there. But two things they all need: money and volunteers.”
But rather than a Sally Struthers-style plea for support for those things, Scarecrow organizers took their “Entertainment With a Purpose” idea to the public. From traditional golf tournaments, fashion shows and motorcycle rides to creative events like “Gator Hator Week” (no “e” because it’s not about hate, Buckner added), the team tapped into existing rivalries and made them productive, with the fruits of competitive labor between supporters of the Vols and the Florida Gators benefiting the Love Kitchen. A second week, “Bash Bama,” grew out of that to support Mobile Meals, and over the years they’ve prided themselves on thinking outside the box for ways to spread the message and drum up support.
That includes rebranding. In the beginning, Buckner said, the Scarecrow Foundation took its name from those husk-filled sentinels of the field, a protector of crops that seemed appropriate for an organization designed to combat hunger. But there was always a goal to take the organization nationwide, he added, and in determining when and how to do so, it became apparent that a new name was needed for the national campaign.
“We’re relationship-based – for example, BLANK has been supporting our efforts since the very beginning, and we recognize that by listening to people what we need to do to improve,” he said. “Even though we like the name ‘Scarecrow,’ the image of this kind of mystical, crazy figure in the crops confused people a little bit. That’s when we thought, ‘Well, is there a better way to brand ourselves as we go out and support existing pantries across the country?’”
And so, after 10 years, XHunger became the public face of The Scarecrow Foundation – the X, of course, signifying the desire to end food insecurity. With Terri Mauk as the executive director and Derrick Furlow as president of XHunger, the Scarecrow Foundation serves as the 501(c)(3) nonprofit, with XHunger as its national initiative. That being said, however, XHunger serves as the branding face of the whole operation, Buckner said. It’s a bold goal and one that has no finish line in sight – but every belly filled is another step closer, and if they can use “entertainment with a purpose” to have fun along the way, then all the better, he added.
“Even though hunger is a very somber, serious issue, we’re very social by design with our events, which raises awareness and goes back to creating donations and volunteers for existing organizations,” he said. “As we’ve pivoted to an energy and a strategy to engage young people, we’ve grown, and now when high school students are required to do service hours, one of the things they can do is start an XHunger Club.
“There’s the L.U.V.S. Program that serves as a guide: The L is for ‘locate a food pantry’ near their schools, so they can go and visit that pantry in person. U is for understanding the pantry’s purpose; V is to volunteer time; and S is to support through fundraising activities. It’s a very simple formula, and it allows them at a young age to learn about teamwork, leadership and gives them something that’s a good resume builder.”
The goal is to, within the next decade, have tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of students participating in XHunger Clubs nationwide – while still recruiting volunteers and financial resources from adults and corporate partners, as well. It’s an ambitious goal, but for a guy whose own dedication was spurred by an elbow to the ribs, it’s not just possible – it’s necessary.
“Why should anyone in America be hungry? If we have more people and more money to help existing pantries, we would move the needle to help end hunger,” Buckner said. “We’re not flashy folks, and it’s not about us. The people that do the heavy lifting are the food pantries; we’re just the marketing arm out here having a good time and raising awareness through creative ways to get people to get involved.”
