Turkey Club America

fight against hunger in america

Harvest for Hunger

Harvest for Hunger raises record $3.6M for NE Ohio

June 19, 2012 By Brandon Blackwell, The Plain Dealer CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A record-breaking 15 million meals will be provided to the hungry in Northeast Ohio thanks to this year's Harvest for Hunger campaign.

The campaign on Tuesday announced more than $3.6 million in donations was raised since late February -- a 25-percent increase over last year's campaign -- resulting in the Harvest for Hunger's most successful food and fund drive.

"The community is responsible for making this a success," said Cleveland Food Bank President and CEO Anne Goodman. "There is no question about that."

After food and labor donations are factored in, each dollar collected can be stretched to produce four nutritious meals for those in need, Goodman said.

More than 900 organizations from 21 Northeast Ohio counties joined forces to combat hunger by participating in food drives and fund raisers during the effort.

The campaign's largest contribution of more than $1.3 million came from the "Check Out Hunger" effort that saw grocery store cashiers throughout the region collect customer donations.

Organizers began looking ahead to next year's campaign immediately after the ceremony.

"This is too important and too successful to stop thinking about it," Goodman said.

Harvest for Hunger aims to reach a goal of 16 million meals next year.

Obesity creates global hunger pang

June 19, 2012 by Ella Pickover Sydney Morning Herald Food security threat... being overweight could exacerbate a lack of ecological sustainability due to increasing population sizes. Overweight people are a threat to future food security and increasing population fatness could have the same implications for world food demands as an extra billion people, researchers have found.

Scientists from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine examined the average weight of adults across the globe and said tackling population weight was crucial for food security and ecological sustainability.

The United Nations predicts that by 2050 there could be a further 2.3 billion people on the planet and that the ecological implications of the rising population numbers will be exacerbated by increases in average body mass.

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The world's adult population weighs 287 million tonnes, 15 million tonnes of which is due to being overweight and 3.5 million tonnes to obesity, according to the study, which is to be published in BMC Public Health.

The data, collected from the UN and the World Health Organisation, shows that while the average global weight per person is 62 kilograms in 2005, Britons weighed 75 kilograms. In the US, the average adult weighed 81 kilograms. Across Europe, the average was 70.8 kilograms compared with just 57.7 kilograms in Asia.

More than half of people living in Europe are overweight compared with only 24.2 per cent of Asian people. Almost three-quarters of people living in North America are overweight.

Researchers predict that if all people had the same average body mass index as Americans, the total human biomass would increase by 58 million tonnes.

The authors of the study say the energy requirement of humans depends not only on numbers but average mass.

''Increasing biomass will have important implications for global resource requirements, including food demand and the overall ecological footprint of our species,'' they wrote.

''Although the concept of biomass is rarely applied to the human species, the ecological implications of increasing body mass are significant and ought to be taken into account when evaluating future trends and planning for future resource challenges. Tackling population fatness may be critical to world food security and ecological sustainability.''

Professor Ian Roberts, who led the research at LSHTM, said: ''Everyone accepts that population growth threatens global environmental sustainability - our study shows that population fatness is also a major threat.'

Paddle for Hunger

Paddle for Hunger event at the Waterfront July 13, 14 [Sports]

June 12, 2012 by Thomas Mc Adam

Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer and Yum! Brands announced today the launch of the 2012 Paddle for Hunger, a weekend of paddleboat racing, recreational floats, and various competitive events to raise funds for Dare to Care Food Bank and The World Food Programme. The event will coincide with the Forecastle Festival, which will be held at the 85-acre Waterfront Park and feature a variety of bands.

Yum! Brands Chief Operating Officer Roger Eaton, Mayor Fischer and Dare to Care Executive Director Brian Riendeau will jointly launch the 2012 Paddle for Hunger which takes place Friday, July 13th and Saturday, July 14th from the “Towhead Terrace” & Boat Dock at Waterfront Park, next to Tumbleweed. The two-day event culminates with the KFC Mayor’s Cup Race on Saturday, July 14th at 6:30 p.m.

“We are very proud to support the 2012 Paddle for Hunger because it will bring the community together to raise awareness and funds for our two important hunger relief organizations: Dare to Care and the World Food Programme,” said Roger Eaton, Yum! Brands Chief Operating Officer. “We’re also delighted to sponsor Oksana Masters, an inspirational 22-year old who will make her debut on the world stage in London as part of the Paralympics rowing team,” said Eaton.

“We truly are a community of compassionate and caring people and I’m constantly amazed at what we can do when private and public sectors team up for a worthy cause,” Fischer said. “What a great way to connect to our roots as a river city, have healthy exercise and fun and raise critical funds for those in need.”

For the past 10 years, Yum! Brands has been the largest supporter of Dare to Care Food Bank, donating more than $10 million to assist those in need. Five years ago, Yum! Brands created World Hunger Relief to generate awareness, funds and volunteerism for the World Food Programme and other hunger relief agencies. Since World Hunger Relief launched in 2007, the effort has raised nearly $115 million for WFP and other hunger relief organizations and is helping to provide approximately 460 million meals and save the lives of millions of people in remote corners of the world.

Oksana Masters is a member of the Louisville Adaptive Rowing Program and has overcome many personal obstacles to qualify and compete in London. She will be participating in this year’s event to raise awareness of the hunger issue.

All of the proceeds from the 2012 Paddle for Hunger event will be donated to The Dare to Care Food Bank and the World Food Programme.

Detailed information about the event, including how to register as a participant, can be found at www.paddleforhunger.com. A partial listing of events and times can be found below. Please note there is no registration fee for the 2012 Paddle for Hunger “float” participants.

Yum! Brands, Inc., based in Louisville, Ky., is the world’s largest restaurant company in terms of system restaurants with more than 37,000 restaurants in more than 120 countries and territories. The company is ranked #213 on the Fortune 500 List, with revenues of more than $12 billion in 2011. The Company’s restaurant brands - KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell - are the global leaders of the chicken, pizza and Mexican-style food categories. Outside the United States, the Yum! Brands system opened approximately four new restaurants each day of the year, making it a leader in international retail development. The company has consistently been recognized for its reward and recognition culture, diversity leadership, community giving, and consistent shareholder returns. For the fifth year, the company launched the world's largest private sector hunger relief effort in partnership with the United Nations World Food Programme and other hunger relief agencies. To date, this effort is helping to save millions of people in remote corners of the world, where hunger is most prevalent.

Farm Bill Fights Hunger

Farm bill helps fight global hunger

14 June 2012 By DAN GLICKMAN and RICHARD LEACH Fighting global hunger has traditionally been a bipartisan effort that has united administrations and congresses without regard to party. The Farm Bill developed by the bipartisan leadership of the Senate Agriculture Committee continues that trend.

U.S. food aid provides the backbone of the global emergency response system. It is essential for responding to floods, droughts and other natural disasters, which have increased by 400 percent over the past two decades. U.S. food aid also provides a lifeline for people affected and displaced by conflict, whose number has risen from 17.4 million in 1997 to 27.5 million today. This emergency support is vital to restoring and maintaining stability in volatile regions, including those that are of key national security concern for the U.S. This new bill provides more flexibility to draw on food aid stocks when circumstances require it.

It also increases efficiency by reducing costs linked with monetization — the practice of selling U.S. food aid commodities on foreign markets to generate cash for development programs. Between 24 and 42 cents of every dollar has been lost through monetization, according to the Government Accountability Office. But we are now going to move away from this inefficient practice, which means that every dollar spent on food aid will have a greater impact.

The bill also promotes enhanced nutrition, increasing the nutritional quality of food aid. U.S. NGOs and companies will be better able to provide products that meet specialized nutritional needs of vulnerable populations — particularly pregnant women and children under two. It helps link small scale farmers with school feeding programs – so these farmers can feed their communities while also helping to shift school feeding programs to local government control.

Building on lessons learned from the 2011 crisis in the Horn of Africa, the Farm Bill also fosters greater coordination among U.S. programs and agencies. The bill’s provisions ensure that future emergency programs are connected with longer-term development efforts, so it can help prevent a cycle of recurring emergencies.

Though additional steps still need to be taken to comprehensively address hunger, this Farm Bill enhances U.S. leadership in the fight against hunger and makes an important statement about America’s values. Washington still faces extreme political polarization, but the Senate Farm Bill seeks to fight against global hunger using efforts that both parties can support.

Inuit to protest hunger

Inuit to protest hunger, costly food

inuit food

June 9, 2012 - 7:58am By THE CANADIAN PRESS IQALUIT, Nunavut — A head of cabbage for $20. Fifteen bucks for a small bag of apples. A case of ginger ale: $82.

Fed up and frustrated by sky-high food prices and concerned over widespread hunger in their communities, thousands of Inuit have spent weeks posting pictures and price tags from their local grocery stores to a Facebook site called Feed My Family.

That site is now the nucleus of an unprecedented protest across Nunavut organized for Saturday to draw attention to food prices that would shock southerners.

“This is traditionally not the Inuit way, I understand that,” said Leesee Papatsie, the 44-year-old Iqaluit mother of four who’s organizing the event. “But we’re trying to get Nunavummiut to step forward and say ‘Hey, food is too expensive.“’

Papatsie wants Inuit in every community in Nunavut to stand together outside their local grocery store Saturday afternoon. A similar event is being organized in Ottawa.

Weeks after the federal government dismissed concerns from a United Nations representative about food insecurity in Canada’s North, turnout at the protest could be impressive. More than 10,000 people have joined the Feed My Family site — over a third of Nunavut’s entire population.

“Food insecurity is so prevalent,” said Nunavut’s territorial nutritionist, Jennifer Wakegijig, who tabled a report on the issue this week in the Nunavut legislature.

It found nearly three-quarters of Inuit preschoolers live in food-insecure homes. Half of youths 11 to 15 years old sometimes go to bed hungry. Two-thirds of Inuit parents also told a McGill University survey that they sometimes ran out of food and couldn’t afford more.

“Every Inuit in Nunavut knows someone in their family or in their community that is hungry that day,” said Papatsie.

The roots of the problem are deep and tangled.

Cost is one of them. As Ron Elliott, the MLA for the High Arctic communities of Resolute, Grise Fiord and Arctic Bay said, “We’re at the end of the food chain here.”

He tells of one southern Inuit family that tried to send food north to relatives. Shipping $200 worth of groceries cost $500.

Nunavut’s larder of “country food” — caribou, seals, fish and other animals — is there for the taking, but only if people can afford the snowmobiles, gas, rifles, ammunition and gear needed to travel safely. Elliott estimates hunting costs about $150 a day.

Canada’s national Inuit group, Inuit Tapirisat Kanatami, reports 42 per cent of Inuit say hunting is too expensive.

And those being asked to bear those costs are among Canada’s poorest. ITK says half of Inuit adults earn less than $20,000 a year.

But Inuit don’t always have the skills to make the best use of the resources they’ve got, Wakegijig acknowledges.

“There’s just been a whole shift in the food supply for people that are now living in communities. And that shift in food supply didn’t necessarily bring with it knowledge about or how to prepare southern types of food,” she said.

“Even if that cabbage cost $2, there’s no guarantee the Inuit mother would buy it.”

Poverty and food security are now at the centre of the territorial government’s agenda. A “Food Security Coalition” has been formed with representatives from six different government departments, as well as Inuit organizations.

Nunavut has also established school breakfast programs in all its communities. It offers classes in cooking and prenatal nutrition. It funds repairs to community freezers to store harvested game and sponsors community hunts to make more country food available.

Increasingly, country food is being sold. Some suggest that will create incentives for hunters to bring in more of it. But others point out those who can’t afford hamburger aren’t likely to be able to afford caribou, either.

A wealthier territory could go a long way to making Arctic hunger history. Ed McKenna of the Nunavut Roundtable for Poverty Reduction points out that mineral exploration in Nunavut is likely to create much-needed jobs.

“Economic growth is needed, and we will have those things,” he said. “The problem is how to ensure that people participate in that economic growth.”

Good jobs will help, but not everyone will work in a mine. McKenna said communities have to learn to work together to ensure none among them go hungry.

“Poverty reduction amounts to more than just an issue around income,” he said. “Poverty has lots of different dimensions and we need to take a holistic approach.”

Meanwhile, Papatsie is just tired of paying $500 to $600 a week in groceries for herself, her husband and her one child still at home.

“I just wanted to voice one simple message: food costs are too high in Nunavut.”

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