Bread Blog

Can’t Lead Abroad While Losing at Home

by Roger Thurow

In 2003, while reporting in the famine fields of Africa, I met an American aid worker who suggested I expand my research on global hunger: “You should look into hunger in America, too,” she suggested.

I moved back to the U.S. in 2005, based in Chicago for The Wall Street Journal. Not far from our bureau was the headquarters of America’s Second Harvest, the nation’s food banking network. It was one of my first reporting stops.

Second Harvest (now called Feeding America) was finishing up a report on hunger in America. Its findings, compiled from surveys with its member food banks, were shocking even for veterans of the domestic hunger battle: More than 25 million Americans were dependent on food banks and soup kitchens in 2005, including more than 9 million children.

Four years later, the depth of hunger in America has dramatically worsened, according to the newest survey.

Feeding America, through its network of food banks and the agencies they serve, is now providing emergency food assistance to 37 million people each year, including nearly 14 million children. That’s a whopping 46% increase over four years ago. It means that one in eight Americans receives food assistance from the nation’s charitable food distribution system at some time during the year.

The survey provides anecdotal backing to the report of the U.S. Department of Agriculture late last year that estimated that 49 million Americans, or 16% of the population, lived in food insecure households in 2008, meaning that they couldn’t afford enough food at some time during the year. That included 16.7 million children. Read together, these sets of numbers indicate that not even the extensive food bank network is reaching all the hungry in the U.S.

These findings also mirror the global reality of rapidly rising hunger. In the past 18 months, since the food crisis of 2008 exploded with soaring prices and shrinking surpluses, the roll call of the world’s hungry swelled from about 850 million to more than 1 billion.

Attacking global hunger through agriculture development, particularly in Africa, has become a top foreign policy priority of the Obama administration. But winning that fight requires conquering hunger domestically as well.

For you can’t be a leader in the global war on hunger while losing the battle at home.

At the moment, we’re losing ground on both fronts. The community of nations kicked off the new millennium pledging to cut global hunger in half by 2015. And President Obama came into office last year determined to end childhood hunger in America also by 2015.

Alas, those two goals have become more distant. We’re marching in reverse at home and abroad.

The nature of hunger in Africa and America is vastly different. Most of the hunger in the developing world is a chronic everyday grind that leads to 25,000 deaths a day. In most cases, there simply isn’t enough food available to eat. Starving children, if they survive, are forever stunted mentally and physically.

In America, hunger is measured by an inability to afford the next meal sometime during the year. In America, few go totally without; the wide network of food pantries and soup kitchens enables many people in times of economic trouble to cut back on food in order to pay for housing, heating and medical treatment. Feeding America distributes more than 2.6 billion pounds of food and grocery products to 61,000 agencies nationwide every year. Many family budgets allow only the purchase of the cheapest, high-calorie/low nutrition food, which is why so many bodies are both obese and malnourished at the same time.

While the hunger is different, the solutions are similar: increasing incomes of the poorest. To conquer the chronic hunger in Africa, that means elevating the productivity of small farmers. The emphasis needs to be on food production with proper nutrition rather than food distribution, helping farmers feed their families (and growing surpluses to sell on the markets) rather than relying on food aid. Reversing years of neglect of agriculture development and creating the conditions for African farmers to grow as much food as possible is the aim of the President’s Global Hunger and Food Security Initiative, which the administration now calls Feeding the Future. The president’s 2011 budget calls for $1.8 billion for this program; it is part of his commitment of at least $3.5 billion over three years, which, in turn, is part of a larger $20 billion-plus pledge from the world’s richest countries to boost agriculture development. The targeted African countries will also be making their own substantial financial commitments to agriculture.

In the U.S., a land of plenty, availability of food is sometimes trumped by affordability. Feeding America notes that growing unemployment has been the main reason for the 46% jump in the number of people it is serving. Its survey showed that about two-thirds of the households it serves are without work, and even those with jobs sometimes don’t make enough to assure a reliable supply of food. Nearly 80% of the households served had annual incomes below the federal poverty level.

With these dire findings in hand, Feeding America is urging Congress to authorize the administration’s plans to increase investment in government child nutrition programs. It is also calling for a doubling of USDA’s $250 million annual budget for buying surplus commodities for emergency food assistance programs.

Coming up with the funding, and the political will, for America to lead the hunger fight abroad and at home shouldn’t be difficult. After all, Congress quickly conjured up $3 billion last year for its “cash for clunkers” program. If there’s money for broken down cars, surely there’s money for hungry people.

Roger Thurow’s blog post appears courtesy of the Global Food for Thought blog. Thurow, a former Wall Street Journal correspondent, is a senior fellow for Global Agriculture and Food Policy at The Chicago Council on Global Affairs.

For more information about hunger and food insecurity in America, please see Feeding America's "Hunger in America 2010" report, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's "Household Food Security in the United States, 2008" report.

Rick Steves: What Accounts for Haiti's Chronic Poverty?

Check out the editorial by Rick Steves, travel writer and author of Travel as a Political Act, in today's USA Today. In "Haiti: Behind Door No. 3, Difficult Questions Await," he writes that Americans need to take a deeper look at why Haiti is so poor -- and has been for generations. A big part of the problem lies with unequal trade partnerships between Haiti and more powerful countries, such as the United States. Tariffs and subsidies protect U.S. businesses, Steves writes, but hamper development in Haiti. "In Haiti, fields that once grew rice sit unplanted. And across the street, a shack sells rice grown in the USA." Steves cites Bread's lobbying efforts to bring about more fair trade policies.

Addressing the structural roots of poverty is challenging, but it is ultimately more effective, he writes. Systemic change is what will help Haiti rebuild in the long term.

Low-Income Families Get More Help in 2011 Budget

The 2011 budget President Obama proposed yesterday contains some hopeful news for low-income families -- namely, his budget makes permanent the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and the Child Tax Credit (CTC) expansions from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Both of these tax credits put more money in the pockets of low-income working families. In fact, last year the combined EITC and CTC programs lifted almost one in 10 Americans above the poverty line. That includes 5 million kids.

Obama's proposed budget also makes permanent expansions in the size of EITC benefits for families with three or more children, and lowers the income threshold to $3,000 in the CTC. At a time when so many families are experiencing stagnant wages, double-digit unemployment, and rising living costs, these tax credits make a big difference -- these stories show how.

That's why Bread is focusing on the EITC and CTC in our 2010 Offering of Letters. Help us urge Congress to protect and strengthen these key tax credits -- check out out our Web site for more information and to get involved in our campaign.

A Hunger Czar Talks -- and Talks

by Roger Thurow

Dublin, Ireland -- His travels may take him to Ethiopia, Malawi, Lesotho, or to the far corners of Ireland. His meetings may be with heads of state, parliamentarians, budgetary bean counters or with farmers and school children. His missions may range from promoting new conservation tilling techniques to considering the role of breast pumps in improving infant nutrition in Africa.

“All in a day’s work of the hunger envoy,” says Kevin Farrell, special envoy for hunger in the Irish government.

Beyond Ireland, few countries, if any, have a hunger envoy. Then again, few countries can match Ireland’s relationship to hunger. Stories of the Great Famine of the 19th century are passed down through most every family. Humble and haunting monuments to starvation, death or emigration abound across the countryside. When hunger calamities arise anywhere else in the world, like most recently in Haiti following the earthquake, calls for donations echo on every street corner. The rattling of coins in the collection cans provides the rhythm for Saturday shoppers, who reach into their pockets with the generous refrain, “Ah, sure, we know what it was like to be poor and hungry.”

The hunger envoy’s job is to make sure no one forgets. And to remind everyone that there is plenty of work yet to be done to end the chronic hunger that burdens one billion people in the world today. Every country should have a hunger envoy.

“You need someone who can talk about hunger at the drop of a hat,” Farrell says over a pint of Guinness at the Bleeding Horse pub in Dublin. “Somebody who’s trumpeting three or four messages at every opportunity.”

The hunger envoy emerged from the Irish Hunger Task Force, which is seeking to put Ireland at the vanguard of the international assault on hunger. Farrell, who spent years on the front lines of global hunger with the World Food Program, has been stressing collaboration between governments to hold the world’s focus on hunger following the food crisis of 2008 and to concentrate the firepower of their development aid.

He echoes the vision of Tom Arnold, the chief of Concern Worldwide, Ireland’s leading aid agency: Ireland can be to hunger as Norway is to peace. Incubator of ideas, rattler of consciences, keeper of promises.

“In Ireland, we’re in a better position to help influence policy, as opposed to other countries who are seen to have a special agenda,” Farrell says. “This can be the role for Ireland; we can maintain the ability to influence.”

The hunger envoy has also been coordinating the hunger-fighting activities of what he calls “Ireland Inc.” – the government, relief agencies, universities and the private sector.

“I’m struck by the vast multiplicity of projects we develop,” Farrell says. “How many have we started in last 40 to 50 years and how many are still operating? I sometimes think we’re dealing with a series of experiments. We don’t spend time learning what works and doesn’t work, what we can scale up to really make an impact.”

In the U.S., a hunger envoy – a hunger czar! – would train a spotlight on the Obama administration’s nascent global food security initiative, which aims to reduce hunger and boost food production in the poorest nations through increased agriculture development. Such a position was proposed in the Roadmap to End Global Hunger unveiled by a coalition of humanitarian aid groups and U.S. politicians one year ago. It called on the administration to create a White House office on global hunger and appoint a Hunger Coordinator.

So far, the National Security Council has been leading the interagency hunger effort involving, among others, the State, Agriculture, Treasury and Defense Departments. A hunger czar would push to keep the effort a top priority, and ensure that the intention of the president to “make farms flourish … to nourish starved bodies,” as he pledged in his inaugural address, doesn’t get diminished in the daily crush of issues clamoring for political attention.

And, as Farrell has done, a hunger czar would carry the campaign beyond the halls of government to humanitarian agencies, religious gatherings, philanthropic foundations, universities and corporations. The goal: create the grassroots support needed to drive the work in Washington.

Farrell, agreeing with the Roadmap authors, says any hunger czar should be embedded in the White House and empowered to take on tough political issues like farm subsidies and reforming the American food aid system.

“The higher the profile, the closer to center of power, the better to champion the issue,” he says. “What the role demands is somebody who is on every chat show on television and radio.”

In America, the hunger czar would need to take up a megaphone to spread the word amid the din of the country’s screeching political discourse. But in Ireland, a nation full of hunger envoys, all that is usually needed is a microphone, or a pad of paper and a pen.

“We have a lot of spokespeople about hunger,” Farrell says, pointing out how Irish rockers Bob Geldof and Bono have long been leading the chorus on hunger and poverty. “Here, everybody has something to say.”

Even the schoolchildren.

“Dear Mr. President,” wrote 14-year-old Eoghan Curran to Barack Obama shortly after the president’s inauguration. He had history on his mind. “Back in 1963, a predecessor of yours, John F. Kennedy, set himself two goals: firstly that a human being would walk on the moon and secondly, that world hunger would be a thing of the past by the end of the decade. The first was achieved almost 40 years ago, the second goal remains as distant as ever.”

He offered several suggestions for bringing that goal nearer: continue efforts to reduce the debt burdens of the poorest countries; engineer a reduction of global military spending, shifting resources from arms to farms; work with European governments to control spending on agriculture subsidies that put non-subsidized farmers in the developing world at a disadvantage in world trade.

“Issues such as these need great world leaders to show example to everyone else,” Eoghan wrote. “You are inspiring a new generation of young people, you have the power and I believe you have the will, please help the poorest in our world.”

Eoghan’s essay won first place in the junior category of Concern’s 2009 writing competition: “Dear President Obama.” More than 100 of those letters have been compiled in a book of the same name.

Eoin Ferry, 15, shared second place honors:

“Dear President Obama,” he wrote. “Are you hungry? I wouldn’t think so. Neither am I. And however much we might complain of being ‘starving,’ we cannot begin to comprehend the true horror of continually having empty stomachs.” He then let the president in on an old Irish saying: “The well-fed do not understand the hungry when their own stomachs are full.”

As a good hunger envoy, Eoin then reminded the president of his inaugural pledge to make farms flourish and nourish starved bodies. And he added these words of encouragement:

“As I am sure you are well aware, if you can fulfill this promise, and considerably reduce world starvation, you will be deemed one of the greatest American presidents ever, a title which I am certain you are determined to strive to achieve.”

Roger Thurow’s post appears courtesy of the Global Food for Thought blog. Thurow, a former Wall Street Journal correspondent, is a senior fellow for Global Agriculture and Food Policy at The Chicago Council on Global Affairs.

Two New Books Highlight Bread’s Work

Bread for the World’s work is highlighted in two new books aimed at inspiring Christians to help others. Children of the Light, by Bread member Bob Violino, and Zealous Love, by Mike and Danae Yankoski, profile Christian leaders and organizations working to bring about God’s justice and compassion.

In Children of the Light, Violino offers a biographical reflection on the faith life of Bread’s president, Rev. David Beckmann. He gives a short history of Bread -- from its humble beginnings to the dramatic progress that has been made against hunger, due in part to the committed advocacy of its members.

Zealous Love introduces readers to eight of the world’s most pressing challenges: human trafficking, unclean water, refugees, hunger, lack of education, creation degradation, HIV/AIDS, and economic inequality. Beckmann contributes to the hunger section of the book, urging readers to call on our nation’s decision makers to pass laws that are more fair and compassionate for hungry people. “God’s grace in Jesus shapes our lives,” Beckmann writes. “It moves us to reach out to others in love and seek justice where human dignity is at stake.”

It's National EITC Day

The Internal Revenue Service has designated today as National Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) Awareness Day -- just in time for the launch of Bread for the World’s 2010 Offering of Letters. The EITC, the focus of this year’s Offering, is a refundable tax credit that helps low-income families keep more of their earnings. In fact, this tax credit helps about 5 million people every year -- including 2.6 million children -- live above the poverty line.

Next Monday marks the official start of Bread’s 2010 Offering of Letters, which calls on Congress to protect and strengthen key tax credits such as the EITC. Check out www.bread.org/ol2010 for more information, including ways you and your church or neighborhood group can get involved in this important campaign.

Bread for the World on CBS

The CBS Religion Unit sent a film crew behind the scenes at Bread for the World’s Lobby Day in June 2009 to experience faith-based advocacy in action. The producer interviewed several Bread members and staff and followed two participants on their congressional office visits. The interviews were incorporated into a documentary entitled Religion, Politics, and Advocacy. Here is the portion of the documentary that features Bread for the World.

A Voice That Cries For Justice, Equality, and Opportunity

As the Food Stamp Challenge comes to a close I have found a new lens through which to look at poverty and hunger issues.  Having experienced only a small taste of hunger and the stress that accompanies it, I know now that the fight to end hunger and poverty is essential.

Today in the Washington Post an opinion article commented on the rise in food insecurity in US homes, questioning whether hunger was really an issue in the United States.  The writer, Charles Lane, makes the point that 99.9% of children had at least one meal a day last year. The reality this insensitive claim forgets is that all people need more than one meal a day to be healthy and productive.  Children especially need a healthy diet to do well in school.  In light of arguments like these, we must fight all the harder to end hunger and cry out against the callus voice of complacency and ignorance.

Because people struggle everyday with food insecurity and hunger, we must write our legislators, inform our friends about the issues, keep ourselves accountable, and constantly work in each of our own ways to increase awareness and truly end hunger.  I encourage everyone to try the Food Stamp Challenge for yourself, to expose yourself to the hunger that so many face.  Without a visceral understanding of hunger, our ability to advocate and fight for the cause is limited. And we need instead a voice that cries for justice, equality, and opportunity to end poverty and hunger.

Mark Fenton is an Intern at Bread for the World

Do What Should Have Been Done Long Ago

Tuesdays are typically days where I have to spend a lot more energy than normal, because I bike to and from my class at Corcoran College of Art and Design, from Brookland to downtown DC and back.  I spend my whole day biking or standing and working, and so logically I need more calories than normal.

Being on the Food Stamp Challenge, I knew this day would be different, and it turned out that it was.  After the typical 3 meals that day, by 9 p.m., I was hungry again.  What happens when you can't afford to assuage such situational nutritional needs?  What happens when you are a growing teenage athlete?  Everything suffers when we are not properly fed.  

There are direct links between proper nutrition and performance in school, and hunger has a direct effect on the futures of youth in the US.  Poorly fed kids are at a distinct disadvantage. What is it like when parents have to worry not only about their food but the food that their children get?  What happens when parents don't eat so their kids can eat?  What happens when children get sick or parents get sick from a weakened immune system due to malnutrition?  

As Wednesday and now Thursday are rolling by, I am coping with the food that I am eating, but know that over the long term this limited diet would cause me to not be able to function like I know that I can.  If I want to be an active adult with a productive career, living on SNAP benefits is simply inadequate.  How can we expect the poor and hungry to function on such levels?  From my experience, it is simply a fact that SNAP benefits have to be improved.

Mark Fenton is a communications intern at Bread for the World.

Video Postcard for Senators Cantwell and Murray: Support S. 1524 to Make Foreign Aid More Effective

(Submitted by Matt Newell-Ching)