Advocates make progress toward goal of eliminating hunger

WACO—Anti-hunger advocates, nonprofit organizations, government agencies and corporate partners have succeeded in “moving the dial” in efforts to reduce food insecurity and ultimately eliminate hunger, speakers reported at the Southwest Regional Hunger Summit, Oct. 17-18 on the Baylor University Campus.

Three years ago, when the Texas Hunger Initiative and the U.S. Department of Agriculture convened the first hunger summit in Waco, Texas ranked second nationally among all states in terms of child hunger.

Jeremy Everett, director of the Texas Hunger Initiative.

“When we gathered here, it seemed we were in a deserted place—and we were,” said Jeremy Everett, director of the Texas Hunger Initiative, a program launched by the Baylor School of Social Work and the Baptist General Convention of Texas Christian Life Commission. “But in deserted times and deserted places, that’s where God moves.”

Today, Texas ranks No. 11, Everett reported. “This year, we will provide 15 million more meals at breakfast for children than last year,” he said.

The hunger summit has expanded to include participants from Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and New Mexico and corporate partners such a ConAgra Foods, Dairy Max and the WalMart Foundation.

Harriet Phillips, the Arkansas governor’s liaison to the No Kid Hungry campaign, reported significant progress in her state, which ranked first in child hunger three years ago but now ranks No. 9 in the nation.

Harriet Phillips, the Arkansas governor’s liaison to the No Kid Hungry campaign.

Arkansas increased participation in SNAP—the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly called Food Stamps—by at least 5 percent and increased summer feeding programs for children by 25 percent, adding 114 sites, she reported.

Research demonstrates increased participation in SNAP and feeding programs for children reduces food insecurity, economist Craig Gundersen told the summit.

Americans should recognize the public health benefits of the assistance programs and seek to reduce the stigma attached to participation in them, said Gundersen, professor in the department of agricultural and consumer economics at the University of Illinois.

While political candidates focus on the middle class, Americans should not lose sight of the precarious position occupied by the working poor who often live at the upper boundary of the poverty line, said David Shipler, former New York Times correspondent and author of The Working Poor: Invisible in America.

“It’s a minefield, and any misstep can set people back,” Shipler said.

But many Americans fail to recognize laborers because “they wear the camouflage of work,” or because their lives “defy the American myth,” he said. The myth says if people in the United States work hard, they will prosper, and if they fail to prosper, it’s because they neglect to work hard, he explained.

“It’s a powerful myth because we wish it to be true,” Shipler said.

Poverty rarely results from a single factor, he noted. Social systems and bad choices by individuals both play a role, and America needs to “address the range of variables,” Shipler insisted.
But hunger almost inevitably results from poverty, because housing, utilities and other fixed costs tend to cause families to spend less on groceries, he noted.

“The part of the budget that can be squeezed is food, and that’s what happens,” he said.