“The poor will always be with us” has sadly been proven out over time, even in this country, the wealthiest on earth. Why is that? In the last five years the U.S. has significantly raised the minimum wage, increased funding for food stamps, WIC and other forms of assistance to the poor among us. Yet the injustice of poverty persists at the same level it did five years ago. In 2004, Rev. Ken Horne, founder of the Society of St. Andrew, wrote an article on this very subject. That prescient article is reprinted below and unfortunately still applies today. It is instructive to read and consider this piece and then ask ourselves “Why?” What do I need to do to address the issue of hunger in a country in which there should be none?
(June 2004)
The Faces of Hunger Will Surprise You
By Rev. Kenneth C. Horne
Executive Director, Society of St. Andrew
I John 3:17-18
Hunger is one of the most long-lived “social” problems facing the United States today. It is also the greatest opportunity we will have to transform our world into the kind of place God wants it to be. Contrary to conventional wisdom, of all our “social” problems, hunger is the most easily remedied.
Hunger will not be eliminated in our country without powerful leadership from those of us who are aware of the tragedy of hunger, and are concerned for its victims. It is in providing that leadership that our opportunity lies.
These are the facts of hunger in the United States. According to the USDA and the United States Census Bureau, some thirty-seven million of our citizens live in poverty. Over eleven million of them often don’t know where their next meal is coming from. One child in six goes hungry on a regular basis.
At the same time, there is more than enough food available in the USA to feed all our poor people many times over. According to a USDA study we throw away over ninety billion pounds of food each year. At the Society of St. Andrew we know that this is true. We have built our nation’s largest produce salvaging ministry in response to the obscenity of wasted food, which exists side by side with hungry people.
For the first time in history we have the wherewithal to eliminate the ravages of poverty. People in our country, and indeed around the world, don’t go hungry because of a lack of available food. There is plenty to go around. The problem is one of distribution worldwide; and in this country, the problem is financial access. People in the USA who are hungry are hungry because they are poor.
Let us be plain about the fact that the worst ravages of poverty can be overcome with relative ease in our country. We are the richest nation in the history of the planet. We have plenty of food, plenty of money, and plenty of social and administrative know-how. What we lack is the political and moral will to see to it that the hungry are fed; the naked are clothed and so on.
As a nation, we have largely sold our soul to the gods of materialism. Our people are increasingly split between those who can barely make ends meet and those who are fairly awash in “stuff”. Citizens and politicians alike largely ignore the plight of the poor as they strive for an even greater share of the materialist pie.
However, at their core, our people are better than that. There is great compassion and caring in our country. There is a great potential for people to follow Jesus’ commands concerning the poor if they are properly led and motivated. National Hunger Awareness Day gives us an unprecedented opportunity to help our nation wake up to its moral responsibilities toward the poor. We must seize this opportunity, and now is the time.
After twenty-five years in ministry to the poor, we at Society of St. Andrew have come to see that it will take many of us working together (church, charity, and private citizens from all walks of life) to supply the leadership necessary to lead our country in eliminating hunger. We must focus on several tasks as we strive to be servant leaders.
First, we must lead by example. It has been said, and rightly so, that the various private sector communities can and should be more heavily involved in ministries to and with the poor. We do many things well, and if we are not among the poor in their struggles, our leadership will inevitably prove to be weak and shallow.
Each organization needs to become vitally involved with the poor in their community. We can begin by finding out what the needs of the local poor are. Once we see the needs that exist in our communities we can then either support existing ministries or begin new ones that can help meet those needs.
But works of mercy are not enough. We must also address ourselves to the systemic forces in society that make people poor to begin with, and prevent them from escaping poverty by their own efforts. In order to do this we must place not only our hands and funds but also our citizenship at the disposal of the poor.
Fortunately, the most serious systemic causes of hunger can fairly easily be addressed. The first face of poverty that will surprise you is the face of an ordinary working American. That’s right, nearly forty percent of people on welfare are working. They are sometimes working two jobs, but because minimum wage is so low, and their employers refuse to pay more than minimum, they simply cannot keep their heads above water. In fact, since 1962 the federal minimum wage has lost over one third of its value. This isn’t an act of God, it’s an act of Congress, and it must be reversed. No one in our country should have to work full time and go home without enough money for subsistence living. We must help the forty percent of poor people who are already working to secure a living wage.
The second surprising face of hunger is either very old, or very young. Most of these folks simply can’t work. We as a people have a moral obligation to adequately support the sixty percent of poor people on welfare who can’t work. A federal safety net that is sufficiently funded and easily accessible to those who are in need is absolutely essential in our time.
It has been said that the faith based community can and should do more. But the ‘more’ we can do will inevitably be in the nature of providing emergency services for those who fall through the federal safety net. (Please note that if the faith-based community were to take over the whole welfare burden, even at the present less-than-adequate levels of support, the total cost would require a contribution of nearly $250,000 annually from every congregation in the nation. This includes all the Christians, both Catholic and Protestant, as well as the Jewish, Buddhist, and Muslim communities. Clearly, the heavy financial lifting will have to continue to be the province of the federal government.
The final surprising face of hunger belongs to someone very like you, only sick or injured. We must speak out loudly in favor of some workable plan that will guarantee access to at least minimal health care to all our citizens. As matters now stand, a person trying to escape from poverty is forever at the mercy of accident and illness. Life in poverty is so precarious that purchasing health insurance is never an option. Indeed, health insurance has become problematic for an increasing number of “middle class” people, and the situation is getting worse.
If people cannot afford to get sick, the fragile boat that is striving to carry them out of poverty will inevitably sink with the first serious accident or illness they encounter. Something must be done to remedy this if people are to have a real chance to escape poverty. In a land as rich as ours, with as much technical and medical expertise as we enjoy, surely we can devise a way for our people to be assured treatment for the common maladies of life. As this is written, we are one of the last industrial nations not to have done so. We can do better than that.
The “bottom line” is that we must be among the poor in their struggles. We must do all we can to minister to their needs here and now in our lives and communities. We must also call for the creation of a world where a person who can work has a real chance to escape poverty by dint of his or her own effort, and those who can’t work are supported by the community with the dignity due children of God.
The very good news in all this is, if we are faithful to God’s call to eliminate hunger in the United States, the moral impulse thus created can serve as a spring board toward the elimination of hunger world-wide. In many ways, the United States is the greatest nation ever known. In terms of wealth and power, we are unmatched in the history of nations. Will we achieve a position of moral leadership equal to our wealth and might? We can begin to do that only by putting our own house in order.
The role that we all can play in giving birth to a world without hunger is crucial. People sometimes fail to rise to the level of their leaders, but they never rise above them. I believe that God has placed the responsibility for leadership squarely on our shoulders.
We must come together as concerned citizens to provide mercy to, and insist on justice for the poor. If this can be done the days when hungry children cry in our world are truly numbered. Observing National Hunger Awareness Day this year will provide a valuable focal point for all in our community, and can move the day closer when the cry of hungry children will be heard no more in our great country.