So goes the motto and headline for the hunger petition on the site, 1billionhungry.org, which allows you to join over 2 million people who already signed their John Hancock’s to display their commitment to solving world hunger.

More than a simple petition, the site also provides a no frills view of hunger. Click on the black and white photo of a man devouring something in a trash dump and read about “What is Hunger?”

The site states: “When hunger is extreme and after days of insufficient or no food, the body begins to feed on the only thing it can: itself. It breaks down its own fat and body tissues, which eventually leads to starvation and death.”

One Billion Hungry also offers a positive spin; browse through stories on the site that encompass the positive changes in the fight against hunger around the globe.

Once you’ve signed, “track your impact” with an interactive map that shows just how many people per country committed to fight hunger worldwide. Right now, Syria and Thailand are in the lead.

Why not help America up its numbers and learn a little more about hunger beyond what’s happening in this country?

Encourage Campus Kitchen volunteers to sign. Hold an event. Get angry.

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The Campus Kitchen national office is constantly combing through resources to share everything from cooking tips to food policy knowledge for Campus Kitchens, and everyone interested in student-driven hunger-relief.

As fate would have it, one of The Campus Kitchens Project’s major donors and a dining services provider at many of the schools that house Campus Kitchens debuted a new website and resource for campus advocacy against food waste.

The site, titled Food Waste, Don’t be Trashy, serves as a social media hub for all your advocacy needs in a drive to eliminate food waste on your Campus.

As written in Sodexo’s manifesto “Americans throw away about 25 percent of the food they prepare – that’s a quarter of their dinner plate…you can stop it today.” The site then provides social networks and links to share their manifesto with all your friends – whatever university they might attend.

Other useful resources including a video created by Keene State Project Portion Distortion, promotional posters, pictures, and links are also easily accessible on the site.

It’s almost as if they created this site specifically for Campus Kitchen groups. Visit Sodexo’s Food Waste site – and Don’t be Trashy.

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 The bill failed to pass the House today as it was brought to a vote by special rules where there were no amendments and only limited debate.  Therefore, the bill had to pass with 2/3 of the vote as opposed to the simple majority.  It fell six votes short.

 The bill is supposed to be re-introduced today under different rules which call for a simple majority vote, which assuming everyone votes the same way they did yesterday, should pass with flying colors.  Major opponents of the bill included Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH).

 This bill has been in the works for a while.  With the recent emphasis on food and the role it plays in the healthcare debate, it makes sense that food safety has become a hot button issue.  Food Inc is opening around the country and opening the public’s eyes as to how food gets from the farm to the plate. 

 Its great to see Congress take another step towards improving food and the greater public health of the nation.  At this point, it’s hard to tell what the overall affect of the bill will have on local farmers and producers.  Hopefully it will create a safer environment for food cultivation and not just more red tape to sort through.

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$52 million of those cuts are coming from Human Support Services and Other Low-Income Programs.  To put this in prospective, the next largest cut is for Public Education at $17 million. 

I urge all of you to visit the Save Our Saftey Net website, look through the information, and sign the petition to urge the City Council to reconsider their budget cuts.  The hungry and homeless shouldn’t face the brunt of the economic burden for the rest of the District.

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This is the working vision of the Adams County Food Policy Council, and as part of the newly formed body,  the Campus Kitchen at Gettysburg College is an active part of making it into a reality.

“We’re one of the community solutions that’s working,” said Christine Nemetz, CKGC coordinator. “It’s an important model.”

The council brings together stakeholders like  Healthy Adams County, an umbrella organization of task forces working on the toughest issues the area faces, as well as producers, individuals, and institutional purchasers. As part of the coalition, CKGC is not just looking at hunger, but investigating the area’s food system in order to come up with new ways to fight hunger. 

One of CKGC’s summer interns will doing just that as she  conducts a community food assessment.She’ll research current policies and bills up for discussion in order to inform the Council’s work. 

This research, as well as CKGC’s ongoing role in the Gettysburg community, shows how a Campus Kitchen can mobilize resources to fulfill a vital community role. By participating in countywide efforts to stop hunger, CKGC is part of a broader movement toward a better food system for everyone.

P.S. The Campus Kitchen at Johns Hopkins University is involved in similar efforts in Baltimore. Read more here. To read more about CKGC’s recent activities, check out last week‘s posts on their food immersion project.

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CKJHU is part of Baltimore’s new Food Policy Task Force, founded by Mayor Sheila Dixon and headed by the city Health and Planning departments. CKJHU team members join representatives of the business and non-profit communities, as well as members of the academic community and although they’re not voting members, they’ll sit in on meetings and provide input.

“We bring in more of a youth presence in food issues,” said Jerome Axel Brown, CKJHU coordinator. Their role also provides a way for other community members to tap into the resources Johns Hopkins has to offer, but Axel hopes other task force members will “see the students themselves as an untapped resource of the city.”

At the task force’s first meeting in November, Axel and others brainstormed along with the rest of the group ways to address not only food security issues, but related public health issues like obesity and malnutrition. Perhaps unexpectedly, Axel notes, these two often go hand in hand. “What Baltimore needs is not necessarily more food,” he said, ”but healthier food and to bring more fresh food into the city.”

This month, the task force will meet to bring their ideas together and move to action. Axel is looking forward to the opportunity to further CKJHU’s involvement with the task force through work study and internships.

CKJHU’s presence on the Food Policy Task Force is part of the philosophy of their new Campus Kitchen: connecting service and student leadership to broader food systems issues. “We are taking it on from a health and social justice perspective,” said Axel, “by thinking about how hunger is a public health issue.”

He encouraged other Campus Kitchens to ask “How does your work fit into the larger effort?”  University public health, nutrition, and sociology departments, as well as local health departments, can get you started. (You can also check out the Community Food Assessment resources at the Community Food Security Coalition and the USDA.)

Axel hopes that their approach, connecting analysis with service, will not only change the city of Baltimore, but also the lives of their volunteers: ”The CKP experience should be part of a student’s life, not just something on the periphery,” he said.

P.S. The volunteers at CKJHU aren’t the only ones in Baltimore doing awesome food security work: this article features the new food service director for Baltimore City Public Schools, who is starting the Great Kids Farm to grow food for school lunches, as well as the Great Kids Cafe, a social entrepreneurship project.

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Participants will be able to upload their entries online between August 24th and October 15th and an online public voting phase will begin on October 16th, World Food Day.

This new Palms for Life project will raise awareness of the “invisible epidemic”  of hunger, affecting more than 36 million Americans who are unable to access consistently sustainable amounts of food for a healthy life. Of this population, over 12.4 million are children, left to suffer the physical, mental and emotional consequences of daily life without the most basic human needs.

Visit the official project website for more information:

www.facesofhunger.org

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Last night marked the beginning of the Jewish holiday of Passover. I observed the holiday by participating in a Seder, a festive meal and retelling of the story of the ancient Israelites’ exodus from Egypt.

However, last night’s Seder was not the first Seder I attended this year. Last Wednesday, I had the privilege of attending “Let All Who Are Hungry Come and Eat: A Seder Dedicated to Child Nutrition and Hunger Awareness” at the United States Capitol. This incredible event, co-sponsored by the Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA) and Mazon: A Jewish Response to Hunger, was just one of over forty such Seders that will be taking place all over the country in the coming days.

The Child Nutrition Seder uses the story of Passover and the ritual practices associated with this Jewish holiday as a means to raise consciousness about the continued presence of childhood hunger and malnutrition in the United States.

For example, at a traditional Passover Seder, participants read about four fictitious children: the wise son, the wicked son, the simple son, and the son who does not know how to ask questions. For each son, the Hagaddah, the Seder’s guidebook, reveals how one should explain the proceedings of the Seder to address each child’s distinctive personality.

At the Child Nutrition Seder, we read about four very different children…four “faces of child hunger”: “the child who receives free school lunch,” “the child who receives free school breakfast,” “the child who should be able to participate in a summer feeding program,” and “the mother and her child who participate in WIC [Women, Infants, and Children Program].” We learn how each child fares in different government nutrition programs and how we can better meet that child’s nutritional needs.

Rather than recounting the ten plagues brought to bear on the ancient Egyptians by God to encourage them to free the Israelite slaves, we acknowledged ten different prototypes of Americans plagued by hunger.

The purpose of the Child Nutrition Seder was not just to educate, but also to empower and advocate for change. The Seder’s impetus was the impending reauthorization of the Child Nutrition Bill, as well as President Obama’s campaign pledge to end childhood hunger by 2015. The Seders are an opportunity for individuals and communities, Jews and non-Jews alike, to lobby the federal government for sufficient funds to combat child hunger and malnutrition.

At local Child Nutrition Seders, participants are provided with resources to advocate for child nutrition programs, and are encouraged to pursue specific action steps to continue to work for change. At last Wednesday’s National Child Nutrition Seder, Senator Harkin (IA), Representatives Emerson (MO), Clyburn (SC), DeLauro (CT), and the presidents of the JCPA and Mazon co-signed a letter to Congress, asking for at least $4 billion in new funding for child nutrition programs.

Ultimately, this week’s Child Nutrition Seders seek to demonstrate that just as the ancient Israelites were freed from slavery in Egypt, with proper governmental support, so too can hungry children be freed from the bondage of hunger and malnutrition.

As Campus Kitchen volunteers, you are constantly made aware of the dire need for greater governmental funding for nutrition programs. In the spirit of the Child Nutrition Seder, I urge you write a letter to Congress in support of a strong Child Nutrition Reauthorization. While you are munching on that delicious, complimentary matzo in the dining hall, visit: https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml to find contact information for your congressperson, or http://www.senate.gov/to find contact information for your senator.

For more information on the JCPA and the Child Nutrition Seder, as well as a sample letter to Congress, visit: http://engage.jewishpublicaffairs.org/t/1686/content.jsp?content_KEY=853

For more information on Mazon: A Jewish Response to Hunger, visit: http://www.mazon.org/

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Then check out part 2 of the interview. While I agree with his major points, there is a disconnect between the core problems he presents–income disparity, too few living wage jobs–and solutions he proposes–streamlined federal nurition assistance programs, allowing more nutritious food as part of nutrition benefits. Modifying, even radically altering, existing government programs that fight hunger doesn’t address those core issues.

I’m keeping an eye on progress toward the solutions he mentioned–the expansion of WIC cover produce in some states, the Farmer’s Market EBT program here in DC, among others–but I’m also about imagining solutions that address the real problems.

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The meeting was intense, emotional and lengthy.  What began at 6:30pm extend until 11:30pm at night.  Having never been to a zoning meeting in the past, the format allowed for anyone in attendance of the meeting to speak.  This included students from CKUF, supporters of St. Francis House and the opponents.

A very real conversation ensued.  The business interests of Gainesville have been part of the regrowth of the city.  As the city expands, business grows.  Of course, complaints of people using the services were levied against St. Francis House.  Often phrases such as “those people”, accusations of prostitution and claims of those in need “taking over the streets” were brought to the forefront on several occassions.

The main issue was based around the Food Distribution Center.  The city had accounted for flooding an area with people seeking services and capped the number of meals at 130.  Many accused St. Francis House of breaking the law because they served more than 130.

But their voices were not the only voices heard.  CKUF had three students who voluntarily attended the meeting.  All three remained for all 5 hours!  Allison Gibbs, Nichole Johnson and Charlie Shaw represented CKUF and did a great job at the meeting.  Nicole, the incoming President of CKUF, pointed out during the meeting that, “There are over 1000 homeless in Gainesville every night.”  Charlie noted, “CKUF brings our leftover food to St. Francis House after all of our cooking shifts.”  He talked about the sustainability of an organization of St. Francis House andwhat it brings to the table.

Their voices were joined by those who were formerly homeless, advocates for St. Francis House and even professors from the University.  Those advocates and the students of CKUF prevailed.  St. Francis House had both of their permits renewed, and a dedicated conversation about services in Gainesville and where they were available all started.

Not only was this a great feel good story about Gainesville, but CKUF did a great job networking and speaking with many members that spoke for St. Francis House and members of the City Plan Board.  It was a great day to be part of CKP, and I was proud to see our active students hard at work.

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