Two articles from the Asheville (NC) newspaper on Joel’s recent visit

Activist and author speaks on hunger
by Leslie Boyd, Asheville Citizen-Times December 17, 2008

Joel Berg, a former Clinton administration official and head of the NYC Coalition Against Hunger, was at Downtown Books and News Tuesday evening to talk about his new book, “All You Can Eat: How Hungry is America?”

Berg, who now runs the nonprofit New York City Coalition Against Hunger, believes the nation can end hunger the same way it eradicated cholera, yellow fever and malaria.

“Government did that and it needs to do this,” he said.

Berg’s book outlines ways the government can reduce hunger quickly and, ultimately, end it in the United States.

“People have been sold a bill of goods that under-coordinated, underfunded charities can solve this, that we can end hunger one can of food at a time,” Berg said “That’s like trying to fill the Grand Canyon with a teaspoon.”

In contrast, he says the real way to solve the problem — which affects 36.2 million Americans, including 12 million children — is for the government to take a serious role in fighting both hunger and the poverty that causes it.

Improving nutrition in America isn’t just a matter of dismantling factory farms, Berg said. Wages haven’t kept up with the cost of food, so cheaper, less nutritious food is all many people can afford.

People in many places can’t get fresh produce, they have no safe place to exercise and they have no time to cook from scratch.

“Poverty and obesity are opposite sides of the same coin,” he said. “White bread is cheaper than whole-grain, whole milk is cheaper than skim and fresh vegetables are expensive. We have to stop seeing government as the alien, invading force.”

Berg said that when people say the solution to poverty should lie within the community, he counters that in a democracy, government is the embodiment of community.

The talk was sponsored by MANNA FoodBank, which has added advocacy to its focus, said Kitty Schaller, director of MANNA. “It can’t just be what I do with my hands and what you do with your hands,” Schaller said.

“It has to be more than that.”

(Read the original article here.)

More in need, less food at MANNA
Economy, efficiency cut pantry supply
by Leslie Boyd, Asheville Citizen-Times December 18, 2008

With just a week left until Christmas, charities are finding more need and fewer resources. Particularly hard-hit are food pantries.

“It’s been dire for a year,” said Josh Stack, spokesman for MANNA FoodBank.

Improved computer systems at grocery chains and food manufacturers and distributors means fewer overruns being donated to food banks.

“Their increased efficiency has been really hard on us,” Stack said. “We’re not about to run out, but we have less and we’re having to work a lot harder for what we do have.”

At MANNA, warehouse shelves are filled with pickles and energy drinks, pretty much useless commodities for a food bank.

“You get someone who can give you 10 palettes of protein, but you have to take 20 palettes of pickles or energy drinks,” Stack said.

Walking through the warehouse Wednesday afternoon, Stack pointed out empty spaces that should be filled with cases of food and stacks and stacks of pickles and soft drinks.

“We run out of things we used to have a lot of,” said Glenda Gragg, distribution manager for the food bank. “People ask us when we’ll have something again and we don’t know.”

MANNA is joining hundreds of other food banks across the country to advocate for a stimulus package that would increase food stamps and send more government food to food banks for distribution.

“We’re trying to meet face-to-face with our legislators and advocate for help for people who are hurting in this economy,” Stack said. “The problem is on a scale in this country that nonprofits need government help to meet the need.”

Advocacy of this type is a tactic recommended by Joel Berg, the author and anti-hunger activist who was in town Tuesday to talk about ending hunger in America.

Berg called the current approach of expecting nonprofits to meet needs in the community “a return to the bucket brigades.”

“Entire communities turned out to fight a fire by handing buckets of water down the line,” Berg said. “It was satisfying work, it was hands-on, but it didn’t work. Buildings burned down because it was only getting about 60 gallons of water onto the fire.”

Modern fire-fighting equipment, purchased with public money, operated by people with expertise who are paid with tax dollars, can pour 1,000 gallons of water onto a fire, Berg said.

“Which would you rather have if it were your house?” he asked.

(Read the original article here.)