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.
Filed under Hunger in America, Uncategorized
With the first primaries and caucuses of the 2016 presidential election about to start, voters will be checking out each candidate’s track record. For Hillary Clinton, this includes an award for leadership in the fight against world hunger.
The World Food Program USA, in 2010, awarded Clinton the George McGovern Leadership Award “for her commitment and visionary approach to ending global hunger.” The World Food Program USA supports the work of the UN World Food Programme, the lead agency fighting hunger worldwide.
Clinton, who was Secretary of State at the time, helped create The Feed the Future initiative to help small farmers across the globe. The ability of each nation to produce their own food is the key to ending hunger.
Fighting hunger is a vital element of foreign policy. Clinton, upon receiving the award, stated “We know very well that hunger is a drain on economic development. It is a threat to the stability of governments and it certainly it deprives us of the talents and energy of nearly a billion people worldwide.”
Today, conflicts in Syria, Yemen, Iraq, Ukraine, South Sudan and the Central African Republic have led to the most hungry refugees since World War II. Droughts in East Africa and Central America are increasing the ranks of the hungry.
For the next president, fighting hunger will need to be a major aspect of foreign policy. It will be for domestic policy as well. Early voting states South Carolina and Nevada have child hunger rates over 25 percent according to Feeding America. Iowa comes in at over 19 percent in terms of child hunger.
Definitely more can be done to fight hunger at home and abroad. Food will certainly need to be a major theme of the campaign season.
Read the full article at Examiner.
Filed under global hunger, Uncategorized
Sandy Berger, the former national security advisor to President Bill Clinton, passed away today at age 70. Berger was suffering from cancer.
Yesterday, Berger had been presented by the World Food Program USA with its inaugural Global Humanitarian Award. Berger had been a leader in helping the organization advocate for world hunger relief.
Rick Leach, President and CEO of World Food Program USA, said yesterday, “We are honoring one of America’s most devoted and influential humanitarian champions. On behalf of WFP USA, Sandy has been our principal voice in advocating that the U.S. and the world respond effectively to the greatest humanitarian challenge of our generation.”
Berger had served as the Treasurer/Secretary of WFP USA’s Board of Directors and as a member of its Executive Committee and Public Policy Working Group. His work closely integrated national security and fighting world hunger. He believed that feeding the hungry should be a top national security priority.
In an article at Foreignpolicy.com earlier this year, Berger wrote, “the presence of hunger and homelessness in large numbers weakens the grip of central authority, creating open spaces and desperate people for Islamic extremists and other militants to exploit.”
He served most recently as a Chair of the Albright Stonebridge Group. The World Food Program USA said today “Those who suffer from hunger, those in need around the world, directly benefited from the life of Sandy Berger. For much of his career, Sandy worked as a statesman dedicated to building peace.”
You can read the World Food Program USA’s full statement on Sandy Berger here.
Read more at Examiner.
Filed under global hunger, Uncategorized
Defeating hunger at home and abroad is vital to our security as a nation. Food insecurity weakens our communities and has a negative impact on children’s health and education. As President Harry Truman said, “no nation is any healthier than its children.”
See my letter in the Des Moines Register.
Filed under global hunger
Earlier this week at Huffington Post I wrote about the Feed the Future bill pending in the House. The legislation is officially titled the Global Food Security Act (H.R. 5656).
Read the full article at Examiner.
Filed under global hunger
It won’t make headlines that the House of Representatives is expected to vote this week on a bill that fights global hunger. But it’s truly an event that can change the world, if we have the will.
Read the full article at Examiner.
Filed under global hunger
Feeding America is calling upon the Senate to act quickly and pass the America Gives More Act. The legislation will help feed millions of hungry Americans. A version already passed in the House of Representatives this summer.
Read the full article at Examiner.
Filed under Hunger in America
Recognizing the growing humanitarian emergencies around the world, members of the House and Senate are proposing increased funding for the International Disaster Assistance Program (IDA). Drafts of spending bills that boost IDA funding have been approved in both chambers.
Read the full article at Examiner.com
Filed under world hunger
Congress is threatening to cut food aid in the Farm Bill.
We need a Farm Bill that fights hunger in America and preserves the food stamp (SNAP) program. There are millions of Americans struggling because of unemployment and low wages. Yet, SNAP cuts took effect November 1st and more might be on the way depending what Congress does.
Feeding America’s Bob Aiken says, “We’ve seen throughout our network of food banks the impact that these cuts are already beginning to have — with longer lines and an anticipated growth in need. Our food banks are stretched and charity alone can’t make up for this cut to federal assistance”
Cuts to food stamps is not going to create jobs and higher wages. In fact, it will harm hungry Americans and grocers where the stamps are redeemed. Part of the House proposal on SNAP also includes eliminating free school meals for 210,000 children. Why is nutrition and education being cut?
The Farm Bill is equally important for our foreign policy. The U.S. Food for Peace initiative is the single largest donor to the UN World Food Program, which fights hunger in over 70 countries.
Food for Peace donations feed people in the Philippines, Syria, Afghanistan, Sudan, Yemen, Haiti, Mali and many other countries. With so many wars and disasters ongoing more food is desperately needed. Children are starving in these countries.
They are not asking for much. They just want a life-saving treatment of Plumpy’Nut to prevent the irreversible effects of malnutrition. Or a child whose life could be changed if there could be a school meal. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the UN had to cut school meals and nutrition for children because of low funds.
As George Marshall once said, “hunger and insecurity are the worst enemies of peace.” That philosophy guided U.S. foreign policy during our Greatest Generation. Food was the driver of writing the peace. It should be that way today too.
Congress has to get its act together and pass a Farm Bill with a strong Food for Peace program. This should include local purchase of food as was done recently when a donation allowed WFP to buy rice from farmers in the Philippines.
The McGovern-Dole global school lunch effort also needs a boost. There are millions of hungry children whose lives could be changed by some school meals.
We can’t just drift along pretending there is not a major world hunger crisis ongoing that is a danger to everyone’s security.
Domestically, Congress needs to strengthen our nutrition programs. Our food banks need support as they help hungry Americans get back on their feet. Congress has to realize this and finish a responsible Farm Bill.
article originally published at The Huffington Post.
Filed under global hunger
Herbert Hoover and General John J. Pershing hosted an Invisible Guest Fundraising Dinner in New York to help feed the world’s hungry (Hoover Presidential Library and Museum)
You know the race for the presidency is on when you start seeing huge political fundraising dinners. Actor George Clooney recently hosted one for President Obama where the cost was $40,000 a plate. Mitt Romney and the Republicans, not to be outdone, are having one at $50,000 a plate.
These events are great for the campaigns to build their war chest. But all it means for the rest of us is lots of political ads. Not very inspiring. History offers us an alternative.
In 1920, Herbert Hoover, almost a decade before he became president, set up fundraising dinners to help millions of people suffering from hunger after World War One. The war, as well as drought, had devastated food production in Europe.
Hoover, the head of the American Relief Administration, appealed to the public through a series of fundraising dinners called “The Invisible Guest.” An empty chair was placed at the dinner table to represent one of the hungry “children of famine.” These were innocent victims of war “wasting away in their own homes,”as Hoover put it. War brings hunger even after the guns fall silent.
Like many political fundraising dinners of today, the “invisible guest” events had high profile figures attending. General John J. Pershing, who commanded American forces during World War I, presided with Hoover over one of the “invisible guest” events in New York City.
One thousand tickets were sold for $1,000 each at the New York event alone. Guests at the dinner, including John D. Rockefeller Jr., brought total donations up to $3 million dollars that night according to Hoover’s memoir. Other invisible guest dinners took place across the country.
These dinners meant food for hungry children in Austria, Germany, Poland and other war-devastated nations. American food aid saved millions of lives after the First World War, particularly children who need these nutrients or they suffer lasting physical and mental damage. A Hungarian official said American aid, “saved from death and disease many of our children.”
What would be inspiring today is to see America’s political leaders revive the “invisible guest” to fight today’s famine. Like post World War I many countries are reeling from conflict and drought. Newly independent South Sudan is in a border conflict with its neighbor Sudan. Many thousands have been displaced causing great hunger and suffering. Children in Darfur, Sudan are also suffering from malnutrition. Drought has also deepened the hunger emergency.
UNICEF and the UN World Food Programme are low on funding for relief of children and could be a beneficiary from an “Invisible Guest” dinner.
Yemen is also in conflict as the government, backed by the U.S., is fighting Al Qaeda. In the background of this battle is a nation where 22 percent of the population suffers from severe hunger and 60 percent of its youth is stunted from malnutrition. No peace is going to emerge in Yemen under such suffering.
The Sahel region of West Africa is being threatened with famine, at a time when East Africa is still recovering from last year’s famine. In terms of children suffering, 2012 is not all that different from post World War I.
Let’s today have a break from excessive political fundraising and have our political leaders come together to benefit humanity when nearly one billion people suffer from hunger. Bring back the “invisible guest” dinners. George Clooney, a humanitarian who has been very active in seeking peace in the Sudan region, could help start this.
Generosity and humanitarianism defined America during World War I as much as heroism in the battlefield. Today, far more capability exists to fundraise and deliver food aid. We need to maximize this advantage and save the lives of the hungry and suffering. It all starts by setting aside a chair at your table for an “invisible guest.”
Article first published as Obama, Romney, Clooney, and an Invisible Guest on Blogcritics.
Filed under global hunger
Author William Lambers 