Plenty

Click to select a specific article.

ADVOCATES NEEDED FOR NEW INITIATIVES

Would you like to better understand the inner-workings of state government and how you can make it more responsive to desperate families? Are you ready to take a public stand for economic justice? Would you like to join others in standing up for legislation that works for essential human services and against policies that lead to poverty and tolerate hunger?

If “yes” to any one or more of these, here are some ways at least to begin:

“Tuesdays at the Statehouse”

Simply come to the Statehouse on Tuesdays. HNO director Bob Erickson who, on behalf of this ministry is a registered lobbyist, will be there to assist you in becoming a more active on behalf of needy Ohioans. He will provide you with information about hunger-related issues, help you think through how you might best contribute, assist setting up appointments and, if you’d like, accompany you to visit legislators.

Flexible, the schedule will usually begin at 11 a.m. at Trinity Episcopal Church, across the street from the statehouse (come to the office, 125 Broad Street, for direction to where we’ll be gathering). You may wish to bring a sack lunch as we gather for orientation, share in brief worship, and prepare for afternoon meetings with senators, representations, and administration officials. While welcome simply to show up, you may also call ahead to be sure that the legislature is in session, let us know of your plans, and to make appointments in advance with legislators. So--whether once, occasionally, or regularly--consider becoming part this weekly opportunity for gathering with other anti-hunger advocates at the statehouse.

“Legislative Justice Groups”

For persons inclined to join periodically with others in digging more deeply into particular issues or legislation, we will also sponsor ongoing training and support. These small groups will provide opportunities for going into greater depth and thinking through longer range strategies for influencing public policies. They’ll offer the possibility for ongoing and mutual support of others who share your causes. They will provide chances to learn how best to approach legislators and how most effectively to share your concerns and recommendations.

“Legislative Advocacy Coordinators”

This year we want to identify individuals to take on special responsibilities within their legislative districts. These persons will reach out to and develop working relationships directly with their congressional representatives and staffs in their local community offices. They will help mobilize and pass on information to other advocates, taking a lead role in coordinating the mission of ending hunger in Ohio through public policy change within their districts.

These three initiatives were approved by the board of trustees for the Hunger Network in Ohio (HNO) as parts of its annual plan for fulfilling the overall mission. Along with confirming priority hunger issues which we will address (see next page), the board decided how we will achieve them during the year. Each goal is an aspiration or condition we intend to achieve in order to better fulfill our commitment to end hunger in Ohio through changing conditions leading to it.

Along with these three efforts, we will continue to strengthen congregations in their commitment to addressing the issues of hunger in their communities as well as through other public policies on state and national levels. We will challenge them to become directly involved in “Prayers, Pennies, and Public Policies” by implementing 2 Cents-a-Meal programs within the life of the church and devotional practices among their families.

From those congregations and within their communities, we will continue to seek out people who care about hunger and feel called to become more active in eliminating economic barriers that lead to hunger. We hope, thereby, to assist advocates to build productive relationships and communicate effectively with policy makers.

Back to top

HUNGER ISSUES FOR 2007

Among the variety of hunger-related conditions facing Ohio and the nation in the year ahead, the Hunger Network in Ohio will focus on three primary areas of concern. We will advocate for specific public policies on state and federal levels to assure that no one suffers from hunger, to sustain the most economically desperate, and to reduce number of vulnerable persons falling into severe poverty. These issues will be highlighted in our annual hunger policy booklet, email alerts, elaborated in our newsletters, and addressed directly through advocacy contacts with public officials.

1. FEDERAL ANTI-HUNGER COMMITMENTS 

We will leverage for enhanced federal support for and participation in supplemental food programs for poverty-level income families: 

2. STATE PRIORITIES FOR REDUCING POVERTY 

We will advocate for provisions within the State biennial budget of essential human services and assurance of a safety net for the most vulnerable Ohioans: 

3. WELFARE REFORM 

We will continue to press for new initiatives in the perennially-pending reauthorization of Temporary Assistance for Families in Need (TANF) that move families from economic despair toward ever greater self-sufficiency: 

Plenty & Scarcity: Hunger and Public Policy 2007

This year’s booklet will feature these three critical issues. They are written for anyone who is concerned about hunger and willing to help change conditions that cause it. The booklet combines biblical suggestions with information about hunger-related issues and implications of public policy decisions. These discussion-starters may be used by church classes, families, friends, or any small groups willing to struggle together with Scripture and life—ancient wisdom and contemporary society.

This exercise is intended to encourage lively dialogue on the humanitarian impact of choices before us—the tension between “plenty” and “scarcity.” In a universe blessed with abundance, too many of our local and global neighbors are cursed with hunger, malnutrition, and starvation.

While participants are encouraged to adopt their own patterns for personal and group discussions, a suggested format includes the following: reading the scripture, considering each topic, allowing time for prayer, and filling out ballots to express their opinions. They may wish to share their answers with one another as well as consider how to act upon their conclusions.

Booklets will be available by mid-February online through our Website www.hungernetohio.org.  Hard copies may be ordered through the Hunger Network office ($1.00 each) which may then be photocopied for use group use.

Back to top

New Website Address

www.HungerNetOhio.org:  Write it down in your list of Websites. It replaces www.hungernetworkinohio.org as our official electronic “handle.” Need copies of the most current email alerts? Newsletters? Hunger issues booklets? Directory of public officials? This is the place for information and referral.

Email Policy Alert Network

What has been known as HungerNetOhio (and serviced through America Online as hungernetohio@aol.com) continues to be our most vital source of information on hunger-related legislation coming before the state and federal congressional officials. Averaging about twice a month, alerts inform you immediately about the quick-breaking, ever-changing scenes of governmental decision-making. It lets you know what’s happening now and—whether preferring a little or a lot of information on bills that impact desperate Ohioans—how you may influence the outcome.

Although continuing in upcoming months to use hungernetohio@aol.com as our primary email contact, we plan eventually to shift our overall electronic communications under our website carrier. For those currently receiving our email alerts, it will require confirming that you wish to continue. After a series of announcements about what to expect, you will receive a one-time mail message asking if you wish to continue. Only those who reply will be kept in our email data base. So, please stay tuned be prepared to respond when asked.

Back to top

Prayers, Pennies, and Public Policies (2 Cents-a-Meal)

Throughout our 28 year history, the work of and support for HNO has depended upon committed congregations and individuals. We simply ask for those who believe in this ministry to become involved in forms of advocacy, including sharing their pennies. Out of every 2 cents received, one penny goes into “first aid” services for the hungry (such as food pantries) and the other to the systemic change and long-term solutions through advocacy for legislative justice. Please continue to keep us in mind, as a part of your prayers, and effective through your contributions.

Back to top

Campaign to Protect Ohio’s Future 2008-2009 Budget and Policy Principles(*)

(* Endorsed by the board of the Hunger Network in Ohio)

Back to top

Hunger No More!?

In case you haven’t been paying attention lately, hunger has been eliminated. That’s right! It happen sometime in 2006 and was announced before Thanksgiving. No child left behind--or unfed--hereafter? However, for those who would rate this just short of the “second coming,” hold the celebration!

The source--the United States Department of Agriculture--came up with new labels to replace the word with more precise “ranges of severity in food insecurity.” USDA made these changes in response to recommendations by an expert panel requested by the Committee on National Statistics of the National Academies to better estimate degrees of desperation in needy households. Compared to a benchmark of “high food security” where there were no reported indications of food-access problems or limitations, these are gradations of what were previously lumped together as “hunger”:

Marginal food security with one or two reported indications—typically fear about food sufficiency or shortage of food in the house although little or no evidence of changes in diets or food intake Low food security indicating reduced quality, variety, or desirability of diet but little or no evidence of reduced food intake Very low food security or multiple indications of disrupted eating patterns and reduced food intake

Thus, “food insecurity” is an economic and social condition of limited or uncertain access to adequate food. Whereas, “hunger” is an individual-level physiological condition that may result from food insecurity. Under this definition, the use of “hunger” is restricted to a “potential consequence of food insecurity that, because of prolonged, involuntary lack of food, results in discomfort, illness, weakness, or pain that goes beyond the usual uneasy sensation.”

The decision to sprinkle fresh vocabulary onto this speculative salad of nutritional anxiety has been met with mixed reviews. Some consider it to be overdue discretion, an alternative to thinking of hunger as everything from temporarily empty shelves to persistently empty stomachs. Others chide it as an academic exercise designed ultimately to shortchange desperate people who are distinguished only as uniquely vulnerable links in a chain of human misery. These cynics remember a similar word-changing initiative in the 1980’s fiasco when the USDA tried to reconcile cutting cost for the federal school lunch program by declaring ketchup to be a vegetable.

Still others, accepting the shift in language, use it to clarify the interlocking nature of deprivation. The Food Research and Action Center, an anti-hunger advocacy group in Washington, states the underlying worry of many anti-hunger advocates: “The ability to obtain enough food for an active, healthy life is the most basic of human needs. Food insecure households cannot achieve this fundamental element of well-being. They are the ones in our country most likely to be hungry, undernourished, and in poor health, and the ones most in need of assistance. A high number of food insecure households in a nation with our economic plenty means that the fruits of our economy, and the benefits of public and private programs for needy people, are not yet reaching millions of low-income people who are at great risk.”

Recognizing potential benefits of new approaches to old problems, hopefully the debate among hearty supporters and healthy skeptics will forge a stronger partnership to address “THE problem.” For any “solution” will be measured not so much by discrimination about whether someone is either food insecure or hungry as through its long-term impact upon the 35 million Americans who regularly struggle with being able to put nutritious food on the table.

Bob Erickson

(References: Washington Post: 11.16.06; www.FRAC.org 
See survey results, “Not Enough to Eat,” page 3)