Organizations and Citizens Work To Fill In The Gaps of Hunger

By Harrison Golden

For Danny Meyer, a lunchtime walk around Union Square provides an economic story of its own. From the farmers markets and the budding tourism along the sidewalks, he can easily see the light at the end of the recession’s tunnel. However, by looking over at the nearby homeless citizens, holding up their cardboard signs and shuffling their ways through garbage cans, he still sees several holes in the city’s approaches to hunger and poverty.

As founder and CEO of the Union Square Hospitality Group, which owns some of the city’s best-known eateries, including Union Square Café, Shake Shack, and Gramercy Tavern, Meyer feels like his placement gives him an intense responsibility to reach out and get involved in his community. For years, he has donated excess food from his restaurants to programs like City Harvest, who not only provide about 30 million pounds of food to soup kitchens, pantries, and shelters each year, but also sponsor education programs encouraging community involvement, nutrition, and healthy eating habits.

“As great as it is that we seem to be on the economic upswing, it’s not going to mean anything if we oversimplify the situation,” Meyer said, enjoying his midday meal at the Union Square Café. “There are still families, hard-working families, I meet in this city who have no idea what fullness is. That’s something that has always come off as crazy to me. As fortunate as I am personally, I have this intense gut feeling that there is still so much that has to be done here.”

According to Joel Berg of the New York Coalition Against Hunger, 700,000 more New Yorkers are accessing food stamps than did so five years ago. While he acknowledges that federal initiatives such as the 2008 Economic Recovery Rebate and stimulus funds from the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act have allowed for a continuation of citywide anti-poverty, anti-hunger programs, they are still under much daily strain. Minimum wage in the city is currently $7.25 per hour, the same as the federal rate, and the cost-of-living index, measured by differences in the prices of area goods and services, stands at roughly 162, a somewhat large disparity from the national average of 100.

Last week, members of the New York State Legislature and newly elected Governor Andrew Cuomo agreed to provide $300 million to hunger programs throughout the state, the same amount as last year. However, lawmakers also consented to halt the planned increase in basic welfare grants despite a $1.3 billion donation from the federal government. Officials from the Hunger Action Network condemn the move, calling it an act of fiscal regression during a time that should be marked by progress and unity.

“Lawmakers should be ashamed of themselves,” said Mark Dunlea, executive director of the Hunger Action Network, in a statement. “This was the one issue where money goes directly into the pockets of the poorest of the poor. Almost every other program has someone other than the poor that gets a cut of the funding stream. The poor just don’t have the campaign contributions to get legislators to do what is right.”

In an effort to move forward on the city’s fight against hunger without overloading the demand for government-issued food stamps, food banks such as City Harvest and the Food Bank For New York City, as well as activist networks like the New York Coalition Against Hunger, have collectively encouraged everyday citizens and businesspeople to donate increased amounts of time and effort to their cause, regardless of organizational or political preferences.

“Quite too often, people make it about politics, taking partisan business into consideration,” said Triada Stampas, Director of Government Relations, Policy, and Public Education at the Food Bank For New York City. “But these are lives and livelihoods at stake. And the best way to meet these goals is to ensure quality from all angles—government, organizations, citizen involvement. By working together through all these approaches, we have no choice but to help the food banks and poverty programs prosper.”

In light of ongoing statements from Congressional leaders threatening the future of federal funding for food banks and soup kitchens, cities across the nation are also working to find ways of decreasing poverty.

In Los Angeles County, over 1.7 million residents were reported to have struggled with food insecurity in 2009, the most recent year in which information was available, according to a study from Feeding America, the country’s largest network of food banks.

However, participation for food stamps in California is close to an all-time low. Last year, over fifty percent of the state’s households missed the cutoff for food stamp qualification, earning more than 130 percent of the poverty level. But members of the California Food Policy Advocates group, as well as officials from the Los Angeles Regional Foodbank, insist that people and organizations both remain active in the fight against hunger, supporting all citizens facing hunger, regardless of qualifications.

“Over the last two years of this economic recession we’ve seen an enormous increase in demand for food assistance throughout the county,” Michael Flood, President and CEO of the Los Angeles Regional Foodbank, told the Associated Press.

During the past few years, the food bank has successfully increased its range of impact, distributing food to more than one million people last year, compared to about 600,000 in 2006. Flood attributes the progress to volunteer involvement. In 2010, approximately 24,000 citizens participated in their efforts to decrease food insecurity. In addition, the organization currently comprises of 600 member agencies, which primarily include soup kitchens and food pantries throughout the region.

“With food and fuel prices rising and an unemployment rate in the county at nearly 13 percent, we expect 2011 to be another demanding year,” Flood added, noting the importance of consistent, well-rounded commitment from member agencies, activist organizations, and volunteers alike in fighting to decrease hunger.

In Houston, a city considered one of the nation’s worst for child hunger, groups such as Volunteer Houston and the Houston Food Bank are aiming to widen their resources and recruit more volunteers, hoping that doing so will more adequately balance demand for both government food stamps and non-government organizations, or NGOs.

According to a 2009 study from Feeding America, about one in five children in the state experience hunger, higher than any other state in the country. In addition to an 8.8 unemployment rate, over 17 percent of Texans live below the poverty line, including nearly 26 percent of children, leading poverty activists in both Houston and the state as a whole to treat the issue with increased alarm.

“Loss of jobs and lower wages mean more families and individuals need help keeping food on the table,” said Brian Greene, President of the Houston Food Bank, the largest of its kind in the region. “We must count even more on our donors, volunteers, and other community partners to stand with us in alleviating the suffering caused by hunger.”

In 2010, 65 million pounds of food were donated to the bank, up about 40 percent from two years ago. Through its nearly 500 hunger relief agencies, including church food pantries, homeless shelters, and nutrition sites for the youth and elderly, the Houston Food Bank has fed an annual rate of 865,000 people. Public advocates and political analysts attribute this to a rise in volunteerism, as roughly 260,000 hours are spent per year assisting the food bank in meeting demand. With continued involvement, they not only hope to gradually give more opportunities to those dealing with food insecurity, but to also ease the burdens of unemployment.

“I think Texas is on the comeback, faster than other states,” said Talmadge Heflin, Director for the Texas Public Policy Foundation’s Center for Fiscal Policy. “Obviously we got hit by the recession. People are feeling that, but we are coming out of it sooner.”

Finishing his lunch at the Union Square Café, a tuna salad sandwich with a glass of red wine on the side, Meyer firmly shakes his waiter’s hand, commending him on his personable service.

“So many cities and towns across the country are filled these different stories and different ideas,” he says.

“Even by making conversation at restaurants or sidewalks, everyday people can open themselves up to new worlds. It’s all just a matter of caring, working with others, sharing the moments, and taking all you can get along the way.”