Beyond Hunger is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping individuals overcome the obsession with food and weight and find a natural, loving and peaceful relationship with their food, weight, and selves. They provide support groups, workshops and education for adults and adolescents with eating disorders. Beyond Hunger uses a non-diet approach to explore body hatred and the psychological, cultural and spiritual issues underlying disorder eating.

As part of the Peer Education Program, Beyond Hunger has trained peer educators (ages 15-22) to teach teens about body image issues and eating disorder prevention through classroom presentations.

The mission of Eating Disorders Resource Center (EDRC) is to increase awareness and understanding of eating disorders for the general public and for health professionals; to promote early diagnosis, effective treatment, and recovery; and to advocate for mental health parity legislation and effective insurance coverage.

EDRC has done a lot of work in the schools, trained many professionals in the South Bay, provided free support groups for those in recovery. EDRC maintains a comprehensive on-line resource directory of treating professionals.

EDRC responds to calls and emails from patients, family members, clinics and health care professionals requesting support and information, treatment options, and help with navigating the health care and insurance systems. EDRC offers an education and outreach program on the early detection and intervention of eating disorders. EDRC facilitates monthly support groups for sufferers and their families and friends.

This charity has grown fabulously in recent years, putting on higher and higher quality conferences, and incrementally being able to offer more and more treatment scholarships. The Board members are wonderfully and actively engaged, and involved in making the non-profit flourish. I have been very impressed by the growing levels of professionalism and growing levels of what they have taken on to do!

APTED, the Association of Professionals Treating Eating Disorders provides many functions. Overall, we aim to offer information, support, and referral information to those in recovery from eating disorders and their family and loved ones. We offer direct service -- individual psychotherapy, group therapy, couples & family therapy -- through our sliding-scale clinic and further support in our supportive living residence. We educate professionals working with this population, have a formal training program for professionals training to work with these populations, and offer networking opportunities for the professionals to build the teams they need to work successfully with eating disorder patients. We also have a prevention division, networking with school counselors, and offering prevention groups for girls 8 to 11 years old, with their Moms, to build healthy self-esteem and body image.