A coalition of organizations marked National Hunger Awareness Day by releasing a detailed plan to fight hunger and poverty in the United States.
The “Blueprint to End Hunger in America” was proposed by the National Anti-Hunger Organizations (NAHO), a coalition of 13 faith-based and other hunger activist groups, at a news conference June 3.
“We tried to lay out a set of eminently doable and affordable programs,” said James Weill, president of the Food Research and Action Center. “This blueprint lays out a path, and we plan to lead and to push policy-makers and the nation as a whole to go down that path.”
The group called on the federal government to cut hunger in half by 2010 and eliminate it by 2015, the goals the United States set for itself at the World Food Summit in 1996.
It also said the Senate must pass the Child Nutrition Reauthorization legislation, which would continue funding existing programs and also expand summer food programs and fresh fruit and vegetable pilot programs for children of low-income families.
“This blueprint is not just about more federal money,” said David Beckmann, president of Bread for the World. “It is about making federal programs more effective.”
Nearly 35 million Americans are hungry or threatened by hunger, government figures show. Thirteen million of them are children.
The blueprint called on state and local governments to expand nutrition programs and make applying for food stamps easier. It said schools and community organizations should help increase awareness of programs that already exist for easing hunger.
NAHO also urged individuals to demand that elected officials support anti-hunger programs. They released a questionnaire for people to use as a guide for asking officials about hunger-related issues. The group emphasized that while hunger is not a partisan issue, it should be a pressing issue in an election year.
“Hunger is something the politicians should be able to join together to deal with,” Beckmann said. (RNS)
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