How many times growing up did our parents tell us not to let food go to waste? If we didn’t like what was on our plate or didn’t want to finish it, we’d hear, “Think of all the starving children in Africa.” Sound familiar?

I wonder what my reaction would have been if my mom had said, “Think of the children in your school who don’t have enough to eat tonight.” In south Minneapolis where I grew up, there probably were kids like that. It's likely that at least one classmate of mine or my sisters' was growing up in a food-insecure household. And unfortunately, since then, that number has been steadily increasing. In 2004, the United States Department of Agriculture estimated that 13.8 million children lived in food-insecure households, an increase of more than 1 million since 2001. Research indicates that young children who experience even slight undernutrition during critical periods of growth are affected in their behavior, school performance, and overall cognitive development.

So how can we provide for those who are food insecure? How can we ensure that the food that is available gets to the people who need it? How can we eradicate hunger and poverty in America?

It wasn't until I sat on the ELCA domestic hunger grants committee that the issue of hunger in America really hit home. Reading the project applications, I learned that “waste not, want not” isn't just a good idea at home, it's a nationwide strategy to confront hunger in the United States, hunger compounded by the inefficient way in which food is distributed to those in need. Grant requests from around the country described the needs of the most vulnerable in our communities, and the descriptions of these programs made it painfully clear to me that the situation of hungry people in the United States is getting worse.

 ¹ Partners for ending hunger Web site


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