Jeanette Bonham, 53, considered herself blessed. She grew up in a close-knit family and traveled the world with her father, an Air Force sergeant, before settling in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. She married her high school sweetheart at 18, moved to North Carolina and became pregnant within a year. Then her happiness began to unravel. Her husband couldn't find a job, leaving Jeanette, who was working 16 hours a day at a carpet mill, to support them both. After their son, Phillip, was born, her husband moved out-and never returned. Because of cutbacks at work, Jeanette's hours were slashed by more than half. Unable to feed herself and her newborn, she applied to the federal WIC program, which gives food to low-income women, children and infants up to age 5. "I felt like a failure," recalls Jeanette. "It wasn't the life I wanted for either of us." After struggling for 18 months, she moved in with her parents and got a clerking job. Five years later she was financially secure enough to move out on her own and start anew.

Jeanette was able to turn things around. But for many others, hunger remains a fact of daily life. More than 11 million Americans-including 430,000 children-frequently skip meals or eat too little. An additional 25 million people are so poor they must subsist on low-quality diets or resort to food stamps and handouts. And the ranks of the needy are growing. According to the U.S. Conference of Mayors, a group representing 1,139 cities with populations of 30,000 or more, requests for food aid have increased 10% in the last year.

Charities like churches, soup kitchens and food banks are struggling to fill the gap. America's Second Harvest, the largest hunger relief network in the U.S., has seen a boost in corporate and private donations, but that has been outstripped by increasing demand at its pantries and food banks. "This is a critical time in the fight against hunger," says CEO Vicki Escarra. "To end the epidemic, we need more people to contribute in any way they can."

Which is why Jeanette Bonham has been working with the national nonprofit Share Our Strength (SOS). In 1996 she joined up with the group's Taste of the Nation program by getting restaurants in Portsmouth and the surrounding communities to raise money for local organizations that feed hungry children. In 2006 Jeanette helped stage a benefit that collected $10,000 for SOS's Operation Frontline, which teaches families how to prepare healthy meals. "Volunteering is fuel for my soul," says Jeanette. She urges all moms to do the same and can't think of a better way to start than by hosting a Great American Bake Sale. "It helps raise money but also awareness," says Jeanette. "I wouldn't change a thing I went through because it has made me who I am today. Now I'm paying it forward. You can too."