Update Feb. 27: Enough people put out the #Bedandbread hashtag Friday for the Salvation Army Bed & Bread Club to hit its Twitter fundraising goal. "@HuffPostImpact @HuffingtonPost THANK YOU, #bedandbread tweeters, we have reached the number of tweets needed for the $25,000 from @Ford!," the Salvation Army tweeted on Friday. The charity event raised a total of $1,733,997 to help feed Detroit's poor, the organization announced in a press release Monday.
It may be known for its food drop-off sites and committed bell ringers, but the Salvation Army is now tapping into the Twitterverse to help feed a city where 1 in 5 face hunger.
Through 10 p.m. Friday, Ford Motor Company donated $3 to a Detroit food program each time the hashtag #BedandBread popped up on Twitter. The Tweet-a-thon supported the Salvation Army's Bed & Bread Club, which serves 5,000 meals to the hungry each day, the organization announced in a press release.
To get a sense of the power of a hashtag -- for every 40 tweets containing #BedandBread, one person will be fed for an entire year.
While there are many Bed & Bread programs out there, Detroit's arm is unique in that it also reaches people in need with its mobile soup kitchens.
"When someone tweets using #BedandBread during the Tweetathon, they're joining a club of thousands of metro Detroiters that have been on the front lines of fighting the war on hunger and homelessness for 25 years," Major Mark Anderson, general secretary and metro Detroit area commander for The Salvation Army Eastern Michigan Division, said in a press release. "It's truly amazing what people -- and technology -- can do when they join together to make a difference."
Click through our slideshow to see which benevolent tweeters are helping feed the hungry.
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