CHEYENNE, Wyo. — There aren’t many occasions throughout the year when Wyomingites are brought together en masse into one place.
So when Jennie Gordon, the First Lady of Wyoming and wife of Gov. Mark Gordon, wants to forge partnerships for the Wyoming Hunger Initiative — a statewide effort to end food insecurity that she helped launch in 2019 — she tries to take advantage when she can.
And with Cheyenne Frontier Days kicking off this week, there are few better times to do so.
For the second year running, the program is partnering with the “Daddy of ’em All” by selling a T-shirt featuring both organizations’ logos to support the initiative’s mission, while July 30 will officially be “Wyoming Hunger Initiative Day” during both the Grand Parade and rodeo.
The shirt, featuring a design on the back with the phrase “Cowboys Stompin’ Hunger,” is available to purchase online and will be on sale at merchandise stands throughout the festival. The cost is $24.95, with all proceeds going toward anti-hunger organizations across the state.
“I started talking with the folks at Frontier Days and they said, ‘You know, we really like what you’re doing,'” Jennie Gordon said. “There are close to 80,000 people in our state that identify as being food insecure, so I think that awareness really raised people to understand that this is happening in their own state, they can’t really look away. … We are so excited to have this partnership.”
Gordon said that about $10,000 was raised during Frontier Days last year from T-shirt sales alone, making it an easy decision to resume the partnership this year. She noted that because inflation rates are up, donations are down while need is increasing, making it especially important for the organization to get the word out.
Working with agencies already on the ground in each of Wyoming’s 23 counties, Gordon noted that grants from the initiative go toward various different programs ranging from erasing school lunch debt to buying fridges and freezers to supplying physical food for families.
Every little bit of exposure toward the initiative’s mission helps, Gordon said, and she hopes that the donations received can go a long way toward solving food insecurity in the state.
“I just want people to be aware that everyone is just one emergency away from being in need,” Gordon said. “It could be a job loss, it could be an illness [or] an accident, there’s just so many things that could happen. … People don’t want to be in that position, but sometimes, it just happens. And so oftentimes, we find those people, if they’re given a hand up, they’re able to come back [later] and help others. … Just seeing that just gives me hope to know that we’re making a difference in people’s lives.”
