Santa Barbara, CA—Vitamin Angels, an organization whose mission is to provide vitamins and essential nutrients to those in need, has launched a campaign to raise awareness about hidden hunger.

Vitamin Angels, based here, created a playful but dangerous character known as the “Hidden Hunger Monster” to more easily explain the concept of nutrient deficiency. In collaboration with Halloween, campaign graphics showed the furry Hunger Monster eating candy out of pumpkin buckets, saying, “When you empty your baggy, you’ll find me in candy! But I’m elsewhere, too…” Vitamin Angels hopes its campaign will explain the hard truth that, even if children in need are consuming enough calories to survive, the food they eat lacks the micronutrients like vitamins to grow stronger physically and mentally. In fact, millions of children die annually from undernutrition.

Once awareness about the issue of hunger and where “hidden” hunger can be found has been spread, Vitamin Angels’ campaign will explain how vitamin supplementation, and audience contribution, can help. For more information, visit www.facebook.com/vitaminangels.

Published in WholeFoods Magazine, November 2013 (online 10/11/13)