After meeting her husband, a full-time Air Force reservist, and living on base, Ashley Gutermuth noticed concerning social media posts in military spouse Facebook groups where spouses were trying to make money to buy food for their families.

"Somebody started talking about pawning their wedding ring," said Gutermuth, who was living near Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J., at the time. "One of the signs [of food insecurity] is military families starting to pawn anything sentimental or looking to sell stuff."

Gutermuth helped connect the spouse with the base's food pantry and learned there was a bigger need than she realized.

Gutermuth teamed up with Heather Campbell, a spouse and dietitian at Eielson AFB, Alaska, who was doing something similar. They put a Google Doc together where families could ask for food, and Gutermuth and Campbell would buy it and drop it off at the family's porch.

Gutermuth also teamed up with the Stronghold Food Pantry at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., which is run by military spouse volunteers ... and uses her voice to bring awareness to the issue

"We've expanded it and are trying to reach other bases and create satellite [locations], and I've become a bit of an ambassador for them," she said.

Gutermuth is also a stand-up comedian and uses her voice to bring awareness to the issue of food insecurity.

"If you just give facts, people tune out," she said. "But if you put some sort of joke in there or sarcasm, it makes their ears perk up a little bit."

Other organizations have gotten involved after hearing Gutermuth talk about the issue, including the Uncommon Grit Foundation, which donated enough to help hundreds of families.

"[These families] just need a month or so where they can get their feet back up under them," she said.