Want to connect across generations? Join us:

DONATE

Purpose Prize

Marc Freedman Portrait

The Latest from CoGenerate

Putting Two Things Together

Putting Two Things Together

On Friday, May 15, I had the great honor to address the 2026 graduates of Drew University, including the undergraduate College of Liberal Arts, the Theological School, and the Caspersen School of Graduate Studies. I'm very grateful to Drew's remarkable President...

Introducing the CoGen Voices Fellows

Introducing the CoGen Voices Fellows

Across the country, young people and older people are stepping up as civic leaders. But too often, they do this critical work with peers, in age-segregated spaces. Young people work without the benefit of older generations who bring lived experience, networks, and a...

Event Recording: Age Diversifying Your Board

Event Recording: Age Diversifying Your Board

Is your organization ready to tackle one of the toughest but most transformative shifts in intergenerational collaboration? In this session, you’ll hear from three leaders spearheading efforts to diversify board involvement. This will be a learning-in-public...

*

Claire Bloom

End 68 Hours of Hunger
Purpose Prize Fellow 2013

Every Friday, retired Naval officer Claire Bloom gives groceries to hungry children to get them through the weekends.

In 2011, Claire Bloom learned from a school teacher in her Dover, NH, community that many local children enrolled in the free school lunch program endure 68 hours of hunger every weekend between Friday lunch and Monday breakfast.

“From the instant I heard her say that, I knew that I could not know this and continue on my life doing nothing about it,” she says. The first woman to be the second in command of the USS Constitution, Bloom had founded and operated two companies after her Navy retirement in 1998. She knew that she could take the knowledge she learned during those decades to answer a social need through a meaningful encore career.

In October 2011, Bloom delivered the first 19 bags of food to elementary school children in Dover. Today, End 68 Hours of Hunger delivers 550 bags of food to children in 13 New England communities.

Every Friday, the food is tucked into backpacks for the children, who remain anonymous to avoid stigma. Their teachers report that they’re doing better in school and have fewer behavioral problems than before, an impact that mirrors research findings.

“It is clear to me that the skills and abilities I mastered through my career prepared me to start and to run this organization,” Bloom says of her encore calling. “I started the program pledging that 100% of the funds I collected would be used to purchase food, and I have maintained that commitment.”