World Food Prize Symposium 2003
Thursday, October 16, 2003
Speaker: Mr. Robert Forney
Ending Hunger in America
Introduction of Ms. Barbara Wallace
by Judith Pim
Our next panel, if you would come forward, is going to be moderated by Barbara Wallace. And Barbara is Director of two organizations that work together to research and support solutions to hunger and poverty in the United States. The organizations are called RESULTS and RESULTS Education. Her organizations also support volunteers across the United States that lobby for legislation that impacts policies to alleviate hunger and poverty. And we’re very happy that she could be with us today to moderate our panel on “Hunger in America.” Barbara.
Ms. Barbara Wallace
Executive Director, RESULTS/RESULTS Educational Foundation
Good morning, everyone. It is my great pleasure to moderate and chair a panel today on “Hunger in America.” And you might ask yourself why, at the World Food Prize International Symposium we’re having a panel discussion about hunger in America, and we’re going to answer that question in this panel.
It’s my great pleasure to introduce three of my colleagues, and I will introduce them in the order they will speak. They’ll make a few brief remarks, and then we’ll take some questions from you.
The first speaker will be Robert Forney, who is the president and CEO of America’s Second Harvest. The second speaker will be David Beckmann, who is president of Bread for the World and Bread for the World Institute. The third will be Eric Shockman, who is the executive director of MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger.
So they’ll just speak one after the other and then we’ll take questions at the end. Please welcome them. Bob?
Mr. Robert Forney
President, America’s Second Harvest
Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, I’m truly honored to speak today before such valiant leaders and trailblazers in the fight against hunger and poverty around the world. I’m very proud to be your friend and your partner in this great battle.
To quote one of our nation’s greatest heroes, Dr. Martin Luther King, Junior, “I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality and freedom for their spirits.” I believe that sharing this bold belief is what we’re here today.
Much of these two days will be spent discussing the problem of hunger in the developing world. It’s right and fitting that some of the planet’s greatest minds gather here to address that problem. But I want also to raise the issue of hunger here, hunger here in America, indeed, hunger right here in Des Moines, Iowa. It’s a startling reality and a dubious distinction for the United States that among major Western technologically advanced nations, we stand alone with a continuing hunger problem.
I think that you and I can agree that the scourge of hunger and the injustice of poverty must also end in America. Yet, this year an estimated 33 million Americans do not know where their next meal is coming from. This week, right now, today, seven million Americans will line up at soup kitchens, food pantries and shelters operated by our organization, asking for food and for hope. Like our colleagues who combat hunger abroad, we have challenged our political, civic and business leaders to support a Millennium declaration to end hunger in America and the world, and end it now.
To put the problem of hunger in the United States in perspective, let me share with you the operations and the activities of America’s Second Harvest and give you an insight into how we contact hunger here in Des Moines and all over the United States. Then my good friends Eric and David will talk to you a little bit about our plans as a country and how we think we can contribute to the objectives of the Millennium Declaration.
America’s Second Harvest is the nation’s largest hunger-relief charity, and it’s one of my country’s largest not-for-profits. We are a network of more than 200 food banks and food rescue organizations working with more than 58,000 agencies who in turn support and operate 110,000 programs to support the immediate needs of more than 23 million hungry Americans.
We provide aid to the needy people in every state, every county, every city, every neighborhood in America. Our network of emergency feeding sites include church food pantries, soup kitchens, meal sites for elderly, emergency shelters for homeless, battered women, and other needy people seeking short-term assistance.
We provide food assistance – that’s for sure – and we provide much, much more. To many needy families we offer hope, a lifeline to get them through a difficult period and on to self-sufficiently. Unfortunately, that hope may have to stretch for their entire lifetime.
To do this work, we rely on people all across our nation, people just like you – one million volunteers that are the backbone of this network of neighbor helping neighbor. These volunteers give an average of 43 hours of their time a year – that’s more than a week and some overtime – just because they care about their neighbors.
It’s been the tireless efforts of this army of compassion that has benefited millions of children, working parents and seniors – 23 million people that they serve in our network is a staggering number. It’s equal to the populations of America’s ten largest cities. Put another way, here in America we have bread lines while standing knee deep in wheat.
To meet the growing demands of emergency food assistance, America’s Second Harvest works with literally thousands of companies, from small businesses and farmers, co-ops, to our nation’s largest grocery and food service companies, to secure the food products and groceries needed by hungry Americans.
Nearly two billion pounds of food was donated and moved through our system last year. Two billion is a confusing number to me. Two is small, billion is big – that’s the basis for that confusion. Anybody had a problem passing a couple of semis on the highway recently, and you think those semis are just going forever? Imagine a convoy of nine thousand semis, 40 foot long, carrying 40,000 pounds or so of groceries each – that’s what two billion pounds of food looks like. You could translate that into how many acres it must look like also. All of that food is needed, every last pound and then some.
In addition to those private donations, we partner with state and federal governments, particularly our very good and great friends from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, to provide stable sources of commodities.
To accomplish this massive redistribution of food, we depend on the support of individuals, faith community, corporations, government and charitable donations. It’s a massive system, perhaps one of the best examples of a private public partnership. It has emerged over 25 years – Why? – to help businesses, to help farmers, to help neighbors who care about their neighbors, and most importantly to help tens of millions in very serious need.
But emergency feeding programs in our country alone cannot end hunger. We surely cannot reduce food insecurity by ourselves. We are not and cannot be a replacement for government action. Government has an important role and responsibility. We need everyone, I mean everyone, at the big table – including government, the private sector – to achieve America’s dream of ending hunger. This is something we must do. Yet, today, we all hear a growing cry for help.
We all know that hunger in a developed world is different from hunger in a developing world. The severity of hunger, malnutrition, starvation that haunts many developing countries commands our urgent attention. But we would be doing a great disservice to our own people, our own victims of hunger and undernourishment if we did not also point out the lasting effects of the problem on our people – 33 million people.
The scientific evidence is irrefutable. Children who suffer undernourishment in critical stages of their development are likely to suffer from stunted growth, impaired cognitive development and a host of physiological and physical impairments – and what’s worse, they may never recover.
In turn, we run a very strong risk of our country creating children who will not learn in school and children who will be impaired for the rest of their life. One hungry child is surely one too many. Twelve million is a disaster.
Yet, too many Americans don’t understand or accept this reality. They tell each other strange stories. Frequently, you’ll hear them telling each other, “Not in my neighborhood, not in my block, not in my state, not in my country.” But they’re, of course, wrong, very wrong – 33 million people don’t all live someplace else. Hunger is a problem in rural areas, small towns, suburbs and our central cities. Hunger is a problem in my neighborhood.
As you can see, hunger has remained relatively constant over the last decade. Yet, when the data is printed for the last two years, not covered by this data, I’m afraid we’ll see a dramatic increase. So the first couple of years on the Millennium challenge in America is not going in the right direction, and I hear it’s not going in the right direction in many other places.
The problem of rising hunger, food insecurity and poverty are not limited to urban America – another popular misconception in my country. As you can see, in our network, nearly have of the people we serve reside outside of America’s central cities. In fact, poverty and unemployment rates are higher, earnings growth lower and housing costs increasing faster in America’s rural community. Sound familiar?
We have over 3,000 counties in America – on this map you can see 189 of the poorest 200 counties in America are rural America. Many of our nation’s poorest are found in Appalachia, the deep South, the Southwest and the upper plains states. Our affiliate in Jackson, Mississippi, serves 29 of these 189 counties. Our affiliate in Lexington, Kentucky, serves 22. The two of them together serve more than 25% of the poorest counties in America – counties where the poverty rate is dramatically higher than 50% and where unemployment runs at a rate that’s five, six times that found in America.
Yet, even in Iowa, the “bread basket of the world,” the most recent data shows that 90,000 households are food insecure. Of the 250,000 Iowans that are living in these homes, over 100,000 are children, and 100,000 are working Iowans. These are fishermen looking for fish.
These statistics and the trends, the rates of food insecurity among children and working families, are, of course, not unique to Iowa. In our network nearly 40% of the people we serve are children, nine million in all. These nine million children presently represent more than three quarters of the children that live in poverty in America. In fact, one in five people we serve in a soup kitchen line is a child. My early recollection and visions of the Great Depression of our country, those children were not in those soup kitchen lines. They surely are today.
This reality is a compelling public policy issue for the world community, the United States and Iowa – not just because hunger is a problem in Iowa but because, if we can’t solve hunger in Iowa, how can we possibly begin to help solve it someplace else? Again, isn’t that why we’re all here.
If indeed we lack the public will here in Iowa and in America, how can Americans function appropriately to assist the rest of the world? These ideas won’t take hold unless there is the public will here in America. And right now that public will is not strong enough.
The good news is that Americans are caring people, and the recent hunger survey polls that we started last year, did again this last summer, and just yesterday released, show Americans care about hunger. Nine out of ten Americans say it’s an important issue to them. What’s more, they will vote this year. They will vote with their feet, their hands and their wallets. And although they still lack sufficient political will to end hunger, they are indeed on the move.
The private charitable hunger movement, our movement, grew out of the simple idea of a neighbor helping a neighbor. It started in the churches, the houses of worship, and has spread to nearly every community – grown to address a need, grown out of a belief, grown while some programs, some government programs, poverty programs are being reduced, indeed grown despite our affirmed desire to no longer be needed in this the wealthiest nation.
As we prepare for our 25th anniversary, our energies are focused on three simple objectives: reducing the number of hungry people in America, increasing the amount of food, and, three, creating a movement that will end hunger.
We believe in the power of the community, we collaborate, and we build strong relationships based upon trust with those who share our vision of a hunger-free America and a hunger-free world.
Here’s my closer, here’s my belief: I believe we’ve reached the proper maturity, the proper understanding to harvest our ideas. We cannot be as patient as we have been in the past. We cannot be as patient as we have been in the past. We must dream bigger, we must act bolder, and we must deliver historic change to the lives of all peoples. Our nation and the world will be the best that it can be, not when the richest are the happiest but when the poorest have hope.
I pray that we will succeed, and I know with your help we will.
Thank you.