The coming primaries will decide who the Republicans will nominate for President. They would be wise to look to someone who can tackle issues of great national and international importance like hunger. For America usually goes with the candidate who shows leadership in feeding the hungry. John Kasich has.
Read the full article at The Huffington Post.
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Dorothy McAuliffe, the First Lady of Virginia, wants to do something the presidential candidates have failed to do: make hunger a top issue. Speaking today at the 2016 National Anti-Hunger Policy Conference, McAuliffe said it’s a disgrace for the world’s most powerful nation to have hungry citizens.
There are over 49 million Americans living in hunger. Yet there is more than enough food to reach all those in need.
McAuliffe said child hunger has escalated in the last decade noting, “for the first time ever, more than half of the nation’s public school students were eligible for free or reduced price school meals.”
But many of the children who receive the free lunches are not getting school breakfast. This has caused student performance to suffer.
But there is a solution. McAuliffe noted, “schools that have transitioned to a model where breakfast is served after the bell, like Breakfast in the Classroom or Second Chance Breakfast, have seen their participation rates increase dramatically, and have also seen decreased behavior referrals and improved attendance – which in turn has enhanced curriculum time.”
Not only must school breakfast participation improve, but there must be increased access to food after school and during the summer months. If everyone does their part, these safety nets can reach all needy children. McAuliffe said teamwork in her state between the Governor’s office, No Kid Hungry Virginia, FRAC, Virginia Hunger Solutions, and Feeding America has been extraordinary.
She is urging citizens to get involved by contacting Congress. The Child Nutrition Reauthorization Act is up for renewal, and this is a chance for Congress to improve the school breakfast and other programs vital to fighting child hunger.
McAuliffe said it’s our duty to act. She concluded by saying “The fact that we allow children to ever suffer with hunger in this, the most prosperous nation in the history of the world, is an absolute injustice.”
Read the full article at Examiner.
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On Friday the Task Force on Humanitarian Access in Syria met in Geneva to discuss plans for bringing life-saving supplies immediately into besieged areas. There are currently 500,000 Syrians who are starving in areas blocked off by the combatants of the brutal civil war.
Humanitarian relief agencies have been previously denied access to these areas. Jan Egeland, the director of the Norwegian Refugee Council, chaired the task force meeting.
Egeland says, “We have already submitted requests for access to the parties surrounding besieged areas. We expect to get such access without delay.” Egeland is an advisor to Staffan de Mistura, the UN Special Peace Envoy for Syria.
The Task Force was set up this week by the International Syria Support Group (ISSG), a coalition of nations that are now committed to ending the war in Syria. The group includes the United States, Russia, Iran and many other nations.
Secretary of State John Kerry said after the ISSG meeting “Everybody today agreed on the urgency of humanitarian access.” Syrians are trying to live off leaves and grass in besieged areas, as there are no food supplies because of the war. Medical care is non existent.
The ISSG must now pressure the Syrian government and the opposition to allow food and other aid into all areas now under siege. The United Nations relief agencies and its partners will deliver the supplies. The humanitarian deliveries have to begin right away to save lives. Children suffer lasting physical or mental damage, or death from lack of food and nutrition.
A cessation of hostilities is to take place within a week between the warring sides, with the exception of terrorist group such as ISIS. The pause in fighting is expected to lead to a long-term ceasefire and peace talks to end the war. What’s left of Syria must be saved.
The five year civil war has killed hundreds of thousands and displaced millions. The Middle East and Europe are overwhelmed by the number of refugees from the war.
Dropping the guns and sending in food will inspire hope for Syrians, which they have not had for five years. Egeland added, “the civilians who have been deprived of their basic right of humanitarian access for so long, will have hope. Let us not fail them.”
On Friday the Task Force on Humanitarian Access in Syria met in Geneva to discuss plans for bringing life-saving supplies immediately into besieged areas. There are currently 500,000 Syrians who are starving in areas blocked off by the combatants of the brutal civil war.
Read the full article at Examiner:
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South Carolina is the next presidential primary (Feb.20) with debates taking place tonight for the Democrats and Saturday for the Republicans. One of the big issues facing the state is hunger, especially among children.
According to the latest data from Feeding America, just over 17 percent of the population of South Carolina struggles with hunger. Among children that number goes up to over 25 percent. Several counties have child hunger rates exceeding thirty percent.
The Harvest Hope Food Bank says many residents are struggling in poverty, having to make difficult choices between food and other vital services like utilities and education.
As the presidential candidates descend on the state, they need to talk about their plans for hunger relief for the poor. They will need to address what safety nets can be deployed to feed the hungry and what solutions can help lift the poor out of poverty.
There are many areas to improve in hunger relief. For example, only twenty percent of children in South Carolina who receive free lunches during the school year also receive them during the summer. So that is one of the gaps that has to be closed to help families. What about additional backpack programs with take home rations during the school year to fight hunger?
There are many short-term and long-term issues to deal with about hunger in South Carolina and other states. Hunger in America has dramatically escalated largely due to the Great Recession of 2007-2009. There is a long road to recovery and the next President will have to take on this issue.
Read the full article at Examiner:
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Secretary of State John Kerry said tonight that agreement has been reached in war-torn Syria for the delivery of life-saving humanitarian aid to civilians. Kerry stated “We have agreed to accelerate and expand the delivery of humanitarian aid beginning immediately.”
Kerry made the announcement at a meeting in Munich, Germany with Russian foreign minister Sergey V. Lavrov and the International Syria Support Group, which consists of the U.S., Russia and multiple nations.
Kerry also announced a nationwide cessation of hostilities to take place within a week. The hope is for a political solution to follow, which would finally end the five-year civil war.
The fighting between the government and the opposition has killed hundreds of thousands and displaced millions. There are over 13 million Syrians in need of humanitarian aid.
But there are an estimated half a million Syrians currently blocked from receiving food, medicine and other supplies. Civilians have been starving to death as the warring sides have prevented food convoys from reaching besieged areas.
A special task force would oversee the humanitarian access throughout Syria. In a statement also released tonight the International Syria Support Group said:
sustained delivery of assistance shall begin this week by air to Deir Ez Zour and simultaneously to Fouah, Kafrayah, the besieged areas of Rural Damascus, Madaya, Mouadhimiyeh, and Kafr Batna by land, and continue as long as humanitarian needs persist. Humanitarian access to these most urgent areas will be a first step toward full, sustained, and unimpeded access throughout the country.”
Five years of civil war has caused extreme food shortages. In recent weeks increased fighting and a blockade of Aleppo has caused massive suffering among Syrians.
Jakob Kern of the World Food Programme (WFP) in Syria said this week “The situation is quite volatile and fluid in northern Aleppo with families on the move seeking safety. We are extremely concerned as access and supply routes from the north to eastern Aleppo city and surrounding areas are now cut off but we are making every effort to get enough food in place for all those in need, bringing it in through the remaining open border crossing point from Turkey.”
The WFP and other agencies need quick access to Aleppo. But it was not clear if the Syrian government offensive, backed by Russia, would cease. Russian airstrikes have been supporting the Syrian regime.
A nationwide Syria ceasefire, if implemented, can allow humanitarians to bring life-saving aid to war victims in Aleppo and elsewhere. The ceasefire would not include ISIS and other terrorist groups which have benefited from the chaos caused by the conflict.
The Syrian civil war has brought their country to ruin. Only a ceasefire, peace agreements and humanitarian aid can save Syria.
Read the full article at Examiner.
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Never again. We hear those words in reaction to atrocities committed against mankind. But we have to put actions behind those words.
Syrian civilians under siege from a civil war are trying to survive eating leaves and grass. They are pleading for the international community for help. But the war and hunger goes on.
Read the full commentary at The Huffington Post.
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We don’t often hear stories of Democrats and Republicans agreeing on an issue. In an election year we might not expect to hear any.
But Ohio’s two senators, Republican Rob Portman and Democrat Sherrod Brown, have recently signed on to co-sponsor legislation to fight child hunger in America. It’s called the Hunger Free Summer for Kids Act.
See my full commentary at The Cincinnati Enquirer.
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Republican presidential candidate John Kasich today spoke out against the blockade of humanitarian aid in Syria. In a town hall meeting in Atkinson, New Hampshire Governor Kasich said, “Men, women and children are dying of malnutrition” inside Syria.
The Syrian regime, backed by Russian bombings, is preventing humanitarian convoys from reaching besieged cities. Kasich’s remarks came while answering a question about nuclear weapons reductions with Russia. You can view the video of the remarks here.
Malnutrition causes lasting physical and mental damage in children, or death. Humanitarian agencies like UNICEF try to bring the children life-saving food, such as the enriched peanut paste Plumpy’nut. Tragically, they are often blocked by military forces from reaching Syrian cities.
Peace talks in Geneva between the Syrian government and the rebels have stalled. Meanwhile, the Russian bombings of the opposition are escalating the conflict and displacing more civilians.
The five year civil war has killed hundreds of thousands and left over 13.5 million in need of humanitarian aid. Those in the besieged areas are the most desperate.
Ertharin Cousin, the director of the UN World Food Programme, told the UN Security Council ” we estimate that there are 18 besieged areas and close to half a million people completely cut off from food and other crucial humanitarian assistance. In many of these areas, people are running out of food or may have already run out of food.”
Children have starved to death in the besieged areas, sometimes within miles of life-saving aid. Over 100 humanitarian organizations appealed last month for “unconditional, monitored ceasefires to allow food and other urgent assistance to be delivered to civilians, vaccinations and other health campaigns, and for children to return to school.”
A nationwide ceasefire, with humanitarian access, is the first goal of the Geneva talks. However, the talks are not expected to resume until later in February.
Kasich is campaigning ahead of the New Hampshire primary next Tuesday. A Republican debate is also scheduled for Saturday.
The war and hunger in Syria is one of the top foreign policy issues facing the candidates. Largely as a result of the Syrian conflict, there are more war refugees globally than anytime since World War II.
Read the full article at Examiner.
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It was President Ronald Reagan who said his goal was “to reduce substantially, and ultimately to eliminate, nuclear weapons and rid the world of the nuclear threat.” Reagan set in motion treaties reducing nuclear arms. Likewise, President Obama has also advocated the elimination of nukes.
See my full commentary at The Hill.
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The UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, visited drought-ravaged Ethiopia last week. He urged support to prevent another famine in the East African nation.
The food shortages and suffering in Ethiopia reminded the Secretary General of his own experiences growing in the Korean War. There was hunger and displacement caused by the conflict between the North and the South.
Ban Ki-moon said, “more than 60 years ago when I was young, a young boy in Korea, early 1950s. As you may know, Korea had war at the time. When the war broke out, we were [in a situation] as difficult as people are now here, even more difficult at the time.”
Humanitarian aid was crucial for Koreans. The United Nations Civil Assistance teams provided food, medicine and shelter for displaced war victims.
The United States Food for Peace program helped with post-war relief in Korea including school meals for millions of children. When the United Nations World Food Programme was created in the 1960’s, one of its earliest project was helping South Korea recover.
Ban Ki-moon added, “At the time, humanitarians and United Nations support came and I am feeling very much moved that the boy, the young boy who went through that kind of difficulties is now standing before you as UN Secretary-General.”
The Secretary General is urging donors to come forward and support Ethiopia in their time of need. The number of humanitarian emergencies including Syria, Ethiopia, Yemen have created a huge strain on relief agencies.
Civilians in these war and disaster torn nations are lacking food, shelter, medical care and education. The Secretary General added, “The Sustainable Development Goals agreed last year are based on the promise to leave no one behind. Humanitarian crises are the main reason why some hundred million people are currently left far behind, in the Horn of Africa and elsewhere.”
Read the full article at Examiner.
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Author William Lambers 