Food banks are critical Band-aids to stop the bleeding of hunger. However, saying you can end hunger by giving out cans is like saying you can fill the Grand Canyon by using a teaspoon. It is an enormous endeavor for which we much use a bigger tool. That tool is advocacy.
As many anti-hunger experts have noted, if government had the political will, it could end hunger over the next couple of years. But that will won’t come until we demand, in one massive voice that no one in our community go hungry.
Below are our three main policy goals:
1. Make L.A. a Hunger-Free Zone
Read the Blueprint to End Hunger in Los Angeles and join our movement to keep abreast of opportunities as they arise.
Hunger can and does impact everyone – from the homebound senior in Fairfax who can't do her own grocery shopping anymore, to the family of immigrants on the east side of town who can't afford food after they’ve paid their rent, to the struggling single mom living on the west side working two jobs. Everyone deserves the right to healthy, nutritious food, not just the well-to-do. By declaring Los Angeles a Hunger Free Zone and creating a Los Angeles Council on Food Policy, we will harness the collective will of our community and government and we will finally have one body with overall responsibility for food security coordination in the greater Los Angeles area.
2. Improve Institutional Food Assistance
Outside of giving everybody a good paying job, the best way to fight hunger is through the myriad federal nutrition programs available. They can be so effective that in just under ten years (1964-1973), the U.S. Government cut poverty in half (19%-11%). The poverty rate currently hovers around 15%. We didn’t lose the war on poverty and hunger. For some reason, we decided to stop fighting it.
Click here to read more about the Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act and the numerous programs at risk without congressional action.
The Action: Ask your federal legislators and the President to expand school nutrition programs to make it easier for kids in public schools to access healthy food by renewing the complete package of child nutrition programs with full funding in The Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act Reauthorization Act of 2009. CLICK HERE to find your Member of Congress. CLICK HERE to send a message to President Obama.
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By increasing the food safety net by 41%, the Federal Government could virtually end hunger in America. What does that equate to in dollars? About $25 billion a year. That may seem high but a conservative estimate on the current cost of hunger is $90 billion a year. Ending hunger is not only moral, it is also frugal.
The Problem: Hungry Schoolchildren
The National School Lunch Program (NSLP) makes it possible for all school children in the United States to receive a nutritious lunch each and every school day. Congress created the NSLP after an investigation into the health of young men rejected in the World War II draft showed a connection between physical deficiencies and childhood malnutrition. In response, Congress enacted the 1946 National School Lunch Act as a "measure of national security, to safeguard the health and well-being of the Nation's children."
Today, we have the same imperative to take care of all our nation’s children and give them the best opportunity to succeed and become productive members of our community. In some schools, the percentage of students eligible for free or reduced lunch in LAUSD school is a staggering 73%. Studies show that better nutrition in children leads to better academic performance, behavior and learning environments. All children deserve the best chance at success.
The Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act authorizes all of the federal school meal and child nutrition programs, which provide funding to ensure that low-income children have access to healthy and nutritious foods. The child nutrition programs touch millions of children each day through programs like the National School Lunch Program, the School Breakfast Program, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), and numerous other programs that improve the educational achievement, economic security, nutrition and health of our nation’s children – our future.
Although the programs are permanently authorized, every five years Congress reviews these programs through the reauthorization process; the current law is set to expire at the end of September 2009. This reauthorization provides an opportunity to improve and strengthen these programs so they better meet the needs of our nation’s children.
3. Finding an Apple in a Sea of Cheeseburgers
The Action: Ask your City Council member to make grocery stores, farmer's markets and community gardens a high priority in all land-use planning, especially in central and east Los Angeles. Visit the City of Los Angeles’ website and find your Council member in the “My Neighborhood” box.
A community food assessment by Project CAFÉ that mapped 1273 food establishments in three low income neighborhoods in South and Central Los Angeles found that 29.6% were fast food restaurants, 21.6% were convenience/liquor stores and less than 2% were full service food markets. In Boyle Heights, there is one supermarket for the 90,000 residents of the neighborhood. Tragically, families in these neighborhoods have the highest rates of obesity, overweight and other diet related health problems; cheap foods may ease hunger pangs, but these foods also lead to chronic malnutrition, an emerging health crisis that impacts us all.
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The Problem: Finding an Apple in a Sea of Cheeseburgers
When your income is not enough to cover rising housing and living costs and put food on the table, fresh fruits and vegetables may seem like a luxury beyond your reach. In many neighborhoods, even if a family tried to eat better, they can’t because they live in “food deserts” - communities that lack the stores to purchase affordable, fresh and nutritious food.
