Thursday, November 22, 2007

Thanksgiving food for thought

Many people across the country today w,ill be having their Thanksgiving dinner at thousands of locations that serve meals to the poor and homeless. But this would be largely unnecessary if our priorities were a little different.

From the Washington Post:

Food banks are a dominant institution in this country, and they assert their power at the local and state levels by commanding the attention of people of good will who want to address hunger. Their ability to attract volunteers and to raise money approaches that of major hospitals and universities. While none of this is inherently wrong, it does distract the public and policymakers from the task of harnessing the political will needed to end hunger in the United States.

The risk is that the multibillion-dollar system of food banking has become such a pervasive force in the anti-hunger world, and so tied to its donors and its volunteers, that it cannot step back and ask if this is the best way to end hunger, food insecurity and their root cause, poverty.

During my tenure in Hartford, I often wondered what would happen if the collective energy that went into soliciting and distributing food were put into ending hunger and poverty instead. Surely it would have a sizable impact if 3,000 Hartford-area volunteers, led by some of Connecticut's most privileged and respected citizens, showed up one day at the state legislature, demanding enough resources to end hunger and poverty. Multiply those volunteers by three or four -- the number of volunteers in the state's other food banks and hundreds of emergency food sites -- and you would have enough people to dismantle the Connecticut state capitol brick by brick. Put all the emergency food volunteers and staff and board members from across the country on buses to Washington, to tell Congress to mandate a living wage, health care for all and adequate employment and child-care programs, and you would have a convoy that might stretch from New York City to our nation's capital.

But what we have done instead is to continue down a road that never comes to an end. Like transportation planners who add more lanes to already clogged highways, we add more space to our food banks in the futile hope of relieving the congestion.

We know hunger's cause -- poverty. We know its solution -- end poverty. Let this Thanksgiving remind us of that task.

Something to think about as we give thanks for the harvest.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving.


Haloscan comment thread

5 comments:

  1. The fundamental premise of the (anonymous?) article seems to be: "While none of this is inherently wrong, it does distract the public and policymakers from the task of harnessing the political will needed to end hunger in the United States." Amd that if people stopped doing food banks they would shift to political activism.

    I don't think this is true at all. I think if current food bank volunteers stopped doing that, they would likely shift to something entirely unrelated. Some people are simply not political activists. And I suspet that is largely true both of people who are volunteering at food banks because they themselves are receiving food assistance and those who are volunteering because they want to make a difference in their local communities.

    It's also important to note that food banks largely serve short-term emergency or semi-emergency needs. That's not quite the same thing as the long-term poverty-associated hunger that the writer wants to see addressed.

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  2. I frankly don't see it as an "Either/Or situation. I'm merely pointing out the cyclical traps that leave the root causes of poverty un addressed.

    Until we discuss Living wages and universal health care without being shouted down as promoting class warfare.

    A large number of the folks who got a hot meal through the help of the volunteers on Thanksgiving, are still "food insecure" the folowing evening.

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  3. I fully agree that it's not Either/Or. That was my main point in fact. To some extent, food banks and living wage ordinances serve different purposes.

    But I guess my experience is different from yours. I haven't encountered anyone shouting about class warfare. I've certainly encountered people claiming we can't afford universal health care or a higher minimum wage, but that's not the same thing.

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  4. Being charitable makes people feel good and important. There are some people who are mentally and physically incapable of providing for their own nutrition (I would bet that George W. Bush is one of those) and need someone else to provide that service. Once we recognize that, we only have to decide who pays and how much.
    It's actually much more efficient for one person to cook for twenty than for twenty to cook for themselves.

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  5. I wonder if people aren't confusing two rather different things. Food banks (e.g., Greater Chicago Food Depository) provide food for people to cook themselves. That's what my wife signed us up for at one point when she was unemployed. (And, of course, volunteered a few hours each week to help pack the boxes.)

    Sevices such as Meals on Wheels provide precooked meals to people who cannot cook for themselves. That's what my mother had in her declining years.

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