Imagine 100+ innovators, artists, mavericks, creative juggernauts, risk-takers and entrepreneurs gathering to address massive social issues and making a positive impact on the world. That’s HATCH.

A year ago, while attending a HATCH event at the Moonlight Basin in Big Sky Montana, TangoTab Founder, Andre Angel, presented his vision and the TangoTab solution to ending hunger in the U.S.

He described how by a simple check-in on the free TangoTab app at partner restaurants, bars, and coffee shops, users are able to help feed those who are less fortunate. For every check-in, TangoTab donates the equivalent cost of a meal to a person in need, through local food relief organizations.

In our efforts to expand on Angel’s original vision and to develop scalable and sustainable solutions, TangoTab began exploring strategic and collaborative partnerships in both the private and public sectors. We also started deploying funds that enable triple bottom-line programs to increase access to fresh and local produce. This addresses the nutrition needs of those facing hunger as well as provides employment for people who desperately need jobs to make ends meet.

At HATCH, Angel met Julia Bryant and immediately connected over a shared desire to better their communities. As a resident of Montana, Bryant described how like many states around the country, Montana has residents that struggle with hunger.

Approximately, 1 in 8 Montanans, many of which are veterans, has unmet food needs. An estimated 1 in 5 kids in Montana also struggle with food insecurity. Bryant knows these statistics all too well, and devotes her time to working with Montana government officials to solve the issues negatively impacting her community.

She says, “As you get older, you realize that there’s a stigma against homelessness and hunger, but there’s really no difference between you and that person. As you mature, you start seeing things with a different lens and realize what’s happening in your own backyard.”

In the DFW area, TangoTab collaborates with F.A.R.M. to employ veterans as farmers. This achieves two primary objectives– first, offering veterans support and job opportunities. Second, increasing the output of fresh produce in the area, which in turn improves the amount of nutritious food provided for those in need.

Because of the large amount of land available for farming in Montana and the needs of the people living there, Montana offers an excellent environment to evolve concepts like F.A.R.M. that utilize a community’s resources to help those who need it.

Now, Bryant, the Montana Department of Commerce, TangoTab and other community leaders are working together to establish similar programs across Montana.

Bryant says, “We don’t need to recreate the wheel; we can partner with people in our state. We’re at a point now that we want to figure out how to do more to tailor our efforts toward the needs of people in our state. We have such drastic weather, which impacts what approach makes the most sense.”

When it comes to giving back, Bryant says that the experiences she had growing up shape her desire to use her skills, talent, and reach to help those in need–

“I grew up in the Bay Area in an atmosphere that exposed me to the homeless population. My dad worked at various restaurants in the downtown area, so as a kid, I would go in to have dinner, and on the walk back, I would see homeless people all of the time. One thing that I got to do because I was the chefs’ daughter was to take breadsticks and hand them out to the people I passed.”

Bryant is always trying to instill the concepts of giving back into her children. For parents of young kids, TangoTab offers a natural opportunity to teach children about giving back so that they also can grow up and put their gifts toward bettering the world.

We love seeing how families, friends, coworkers, strangers, and communities are coming together all over the country to help TangoTab end hunger.

Angel stresses that “no matter where you live in the United States, hunger and food insecurity are facts of life for people near you, even if it might not be visibly obvious. Approximately, 13-16 million children struggle with food insecurity.”  

For TangoTab, the most important thing to remember is that when we work together toward a shared mission, we are able to HATCH a better world.

Join TangoTab’s movement today.

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