The effects of global hunger - Helen

Rioting in Haiti sparked by increases in food prices and hunger has forced the postponement of the Partners in Mission Haiti trip originally scheduled for April 19th - 26th, 2008. One of the activities for this trip was for St James to participate in the Loaves and Fishes program of St Paul's Episcopal Church, Torbeck. This program takes rice weekly to some of the poorest families in the Torbeck area. It is one way the church can help prevent hunger, but does not even begin to address nutrition. In addition, micro loans from the Episcopal Church and other agencies are used in this area to set up small food stores in the market place. The women that run these stores sell both locally produced and imported goods in order to be able to feed their own families.

The riots in Haiti follow those in Egypt and other areas of the world, and appear to be a result in part of rising food prices. A provoking blog on the subject can be found here: http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/04/let-them-eat-ethanol/

The blog talks not only about developing countries but highlights the growing problem of hunger and increasing reliance on food stamps in the US.


Helen

After the Fast - Gayley

Friday: the day after the fast ended. My fast experience was different from that of many other participants because I was visiting my twin and older sister in the Bay Area for most of the week. With no shopping trip and less control over when and how I ate, I experienced unique difficulties. As a plus, Palo Alto and San Francisco do provide some advantages, mainly with fruit trees and cheap, fresh produce.

My sister is eight months pregnant, and much of the five day visit consisted of discussions about babies and children, which made me ponder about the millions of children who must get through the day malnourished or uncertain if dinner will be provided that night. Having volunteered in the New Haven public school system during high school and college, I saw many students who lacked energy, acted out, or experienced difficulty concentrating. After eating on a low budget for a few days, I can start to better comprehend why school would be such a challenge and why scoring well on tests or completing homework on an empty stomach would be so hard. Working without consistent, nutritious food was certainly more difficult more me.

This week has really underscored the importance of how hard it is to get through the day and perform well without the proper nutrition, something I have taken for granted all my life. I think a really important step of action is to investigate ideas to expand more nutritious options for children and Americans at large-as having a sticky bun for breakfast and hot dog and fries for lunch does not offer the complete nutrients to growing children who need to concentrate and learn. While a huge undertaking, involving federal lunch programs, placement of grocery stores, food prices, and even overhauling food stamp programs, this affects millions of Americans' health and lives. We should certainly be willing to donate our time, talent, and treasure to hunger and malnutrition.

Whoops!

Hi, the last post was from me. This was my first attempt at blogging and I pushed the button without signing my name. I didn't mean to post it anonymously! Leeanna

Reflections of a non-faster

When I first heard about this project, I thought it was a fantastic idea. I wanted to participate -- to see if I could make it for a week on $4 /day, and to see what I'd learn from the experience. After the first group meeting I began thinking about what I would buy and where I would shop. I already had a copy of Nickled and Dimed, and the next weekend I read it cover to cover.

Then two things happened: A friend offered to take me on a shopping trip for Indian food, teach me to cook it, and co-host a dinner party -- on the first two days of the fast. I've always wanted to learn to cook Indian food. Plus hosting dinner parties is one of my favorite pastimes, and this was my first opportunity since moving to NYC. I just couldn't pass it up. And then I learned my mother would come from Pennslyvania to visit at the end of the week. My mother doesn't visit very often, so on those days, it felt like we should feast and not fast.

The truth is, I could have fasted on the three (okay, three and a half) intervening days between the dinner party and my mother's arrival. But somehow when push came to shove, I couldn't summon the energy. I needed that energy to get through a busy week at work, and to get ready for my mom's visit. (As I said, she doesn't come very often and I had to clean my apartment!) So, even though I did not meet my fasting goal, I would say I met my learning goal: I learned that if I were to live on a tiny budget, I would need great deal of mental energy just to make it through the day. Even contemplating the prospect, I realized there wouldn't be enough left for everything I had to do. At least not this year.

I have just read the posts on this blog, and have so much admiration for all who have carried on this fast, and for those who have walked alongside them! For those who ate lentils and rice. For those who divided their hamburger patties. For those who cut coupons. for those who prayed. For those who researched organizations that fight hunger and shared the information. Who chose to eat in and not out. Who ate off the McDonald's dollar menu. Who gave up coffee. Who learned to boil eggs. Who kept track of their spending. Who hosted a delicious holiday dinner for less than my mom and I just spent for a single restaurant meal. Very inspiring.

I look forward to talking with all of you about your experiences, and about Nickled and Dimed (which I found riveting). And I also offer encouragement to anyone else, like me, who thought about fasting and decided NOT to do it. There's always next year!

The Society of St. Andrew: Working to End Hunger in America

When you reap your harvest in your field and forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it; it shall be left for the alien, the orphan, and the widow, so that the LORD your God may bless you in all your undertakings.
Deuteronomy 24:19 (NRSV)

Gleaning is the traditional Biblical practice of gathering crops that would otherwise be left in the fields to rot or be plowed under after harvest: Because the food is unmarketable, some growers allow crews of gleaners to pick what is left after harvest to donate to those who are needy.

www.endhunger.org

Some of you have heard me mention the Society of St. Andrew, which was formed by my uncle, The Rev. Ken Horne, as a practical, common-sense response to the problem of hunger in the United States.

"People who live in poverty are constantly at risk of hunger. Those who live in a constant state of hunger find it difficult, if not impossible, to pull themselves out of poverty. It’s a self-perpetuating cycle. Rev. Ken Horne, Executive Director of the Society of St. Andrew, understands this debilitating dynamic. For the past quarter century he has been working to feed the hungry people of America and to help put them on an equal footing with their fellow citizens.Ken’s vision is that of a world without hunger. “Mercy and justice. Feeding the hungry and providing them a fighting chance to escape poverty. This is what Jesus calls his followers to do,” says Horne. “Things ought to be better. Over twenty-seven years ago I found myself called to help find a way to make them better.” That was the start of the Society of St. Andrew, today a national Christian, ecumenical hunger-relief ministry salvaging fresh food that will go to waste, and using it instead to feed hungry people."

The Potato Project was the Society's first project:

"Tractor-trailer loads of potatoes and other produce are often rejected by commercial markets or potato chip factories due to slight imperfections in size, shape, sugar content, or surface blemishes. Usually, these rejected loads end up at local land fills. Through the Potato Project, however, the Society of St. Andrew is able to redirect these 45,000-pound loads of fresh, nutritious produce to soup kitchens, Native American reservations, food pantries, low income housing areas, local churches, and other hunger agencies for distribution to the poor."

As the Society grew, the Gleaning Network was developed:
"The Gleaning Network is a project of the Society of St. Andrew that coordinates volunteers, growers, and distribution agencies to salvage food for the needy. Tens of thousands of volunteers from churches, synagogues, scout troops, senior citizen groups, and other organizations participate each year in Society of St. Andrew gleaning activities. Each year some 30,000 people go gleaning with us to pick up over 15 million pounds of fresh, nutritious food for their hungry neighbors."

"The Harvest of Hope is the ecumenical study, worship, and action mission trip program of the Society of St. Andrew. It is designed to educate youth and adults about the problem of hunger. At Harvest of Hope, you will work in fields gleaning food for the hungry, study hunger issues, participate in Christian worship, and have fun!"

Results:
Potato Project (2006)
We salvaged and distributed to America's hungry over 11.1 million pounds of potatoes and other produce through our Potato Project.

Gleaning Network (2005)
Number of events: 2,761
Number of volunteers: 30,744
Pounds gleaned: 15,125,918
Produce sources: 1,015
Distribution agencies: 5,725
The average cost per gleaned pound of food was about a nickel. The average cost per serving of gleaned food was less about two cents.

Harvest of Hope (2007)
11 Harvest of Hope events
595 Participants
201,965 Pounds gleaned

Let us love not only in words, but in deed and in truth.
I John 3:18

www.endhunger.org

-Annie

Saint Patrick's - Jonathan

On Monday night, about half of the participants met at Kate and Ian's for a home-cooked St. Patrick's Day dinner and a chance to reflect at the halfway point of our week. For $1.50 a plate (or more like 75 cents if you count seconds), we had easily one of our best meals of the week - roast pork shoulder, braised cabbage, and mashed potatoes.

During and after dinner, we talked about two things: our experiences of the fast so far (or our goals for the rest of it), and Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel & Dimed, which has been our companion to the week. From my point of view, there are a few themes that have come through:

1) I'm less sure that this is a "fast", because (especially with very careful shopping) it seems possible to find enough calories to get through the week. But the exercise of eating gains a lot in effort and loses in variety, which changes its character quite a bit - something that might otherwise be entertainment or barely noticed is not really either now.

2) Despite the (very) temporary nature of the situation, I think it's had some pretty clear lessons - tradeoffs in cost and nutrition, the higher unit prices of shopping alone on a restricted budget, the share of mind and time that this can consume. When you consider the sources that say that around a third of eligible households aren't even claiming food stamps, then the problem feels even worse.

3) Before we started, I thought about the project mostly as an educational one, but it surprises me how much it's had to say about fellowship as well. Everything we've done together - shopping, the dinner program, the blog, or Monday night - has made our resources (money, food, commitment) go further than they might by ourselves. Seems like both a little point and an old one, but maybe worth picking out for a moment, too.

With two meals to go, my original $28 is down to several cups of oatmeal, half a small jar of peanut butter, and three slices of bread - enough to get across the line, but it would be sobering to have to start from scratch again tomorrow night. The bigger challenge will be to ask ourselves what we can do next.

Last night on the fast - Ian

I just ate dinner – lentil soup Kate made last night, and bread, which we buy, three good-sized sandwich loaves for a dollar at our local bodega. We have an advantage over the other fasters. Since there are two of us, we can buy in quantity: rice, pasta, and more lentils than one person could possibly eat. Most nights Kate has made one of these staples into some sort of casserole, which we each take to work for lunch the next day.

This strategy has worked well, although it requires a lot of planning ahead. Last night we sat around the dinner table discussing which of our remaining food we would eat when. The last time I can remember doing that is on a camping trip, which I suppose this resembles in a way.