wfn.org | [PCUSANEWS] More than $100,000 go to food security projects

[PCUSA NEWS <PCUSA.NEWS@ECUNET.ORG>]

Note #8649 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

05089
February 14, 2005

More than $100,000 go to food security projects

Presbyterian Hunger Program grants help teach self-sufficiency, advocacy and
cooperative work 

by Evan Silverstein

LOUISVILLE - The Presbyterian Church (USA) Hunger Program (PHP) has awarded
grants totaling $100,780  to 19 organizations around the country working to
create a more healthy and just food system.

	Funding for the grants comes from the One Great Hour of Sharing
offering.

	The grants will help support projects that focus on such issues as
food accessibility for low-income families, sustainable development, and
community organizing, education and advocacy around food issues. 

	Some programs are aimed at teaching people, young and old, to grow
their own food, often transforming dangerous abandoned lots into gardens
overflowing with vegetables and flowers.  

	"There is so much interest in fair and healthy food these days," says
Andrew Kang Bartlett, the PHP's Associate for National Hunger Concerns.
"Whether it is in support of the tomato pickers in Florida (through the Taco
Bell Boycott) or the 1,800 congregations buying Fair Trade Coffee through the
Enough for Everyone program or concern over how livestock is treated. So many
of our congregations are rural and depend on a healthy agricultural economy .
. . "

	Some projects provide low-income residents of inner cities with
access to reasonably priced produce in farmers' markets and
community-supported agriculture (CSA), which in turn helps nearby family
farmers.

	Other recipients are advocating for policies that would help level
the playing field for racial minority and other family farmers, who must
compete with giant, heavily subsidized growers and processors.	

	For a small grass-roots, community non-profit organization like
Chicago-based Ecovida, the $6,400 grant they received goes a long way, says
Amelia Baxter, an Ecovida board member. 

	The organization works with the Latino community in Pilsen, IL, one
of Chicago's poorest neighborhoods, to combat hunger through agricultural and
educational programs.

	"It's a tremendous help when we get a chunk of money like that,"
Baxter says. The grant will help educate scholars about human health and
environmental awareness through the teaching of gardening. "It's one of the
ways to ensure that healthy, clean food will be grown this summer in an
inner-city community." 

	PHP is a ministry of the General Assembly Council of the PC(USA). 
For 36 years the program has provided a channel through which Presbyterians
can be engaged in the fight against hunger in the United States and around
the world. During that time PHP has provided $100 million in grants to help
combat hunger.

	Grants go to programs addressing hunger and its causes in the United
States and around the world.  They support efforts in the five PHP program
areas: direct hunger relief, development assistance, public policy advocacy,
lifestyle integrity, and hunger education.

	The PHP Advisory Committee approved the grant recipients last year.

The programs receiving grants:

* Community Harvest, Washington, DC (Synod of Mid-Atlantic, National Capital
Presbytery): $8,000 to provide low-income communities with access to healthy
foods by linking them to local farmers

* Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) Learning Center, Chicago, IL (Synod
of Lincoln Trails, Chicago Presbytery): $4,500 to educate about local food
systems held in city neighborhoods

* COMPA, Washington, DC (national): $8,000 to create awareness about harmful
economic development models and to seek alternatives to guarantee sustainable
development

* Dakota Resource Council, Dickinson, ND (Synod of Lake and Prairies,
Northern Plains Presbytery): $4,500 to secure greater justice in the
marketplace and in U.S. farm policy for small and medium farmers

* Ecovida, Chicago, IL (Synod of Lincoln Trails, Chicago Presbytery): $6,400
to educate people in the community about human health and environmental
awareness through the teaching of gardening

* Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon, Portland, OR (Synod of the Pacific,
Eastern Oregon Presbytery): $5,000 to increase local food market
opportunities for low-income families

* Faith in Place, Chicago, IL (Lincoln Trails Synod, Chicago Presbytery):
$6,400 to educate people about fair trade, encourage support to local organic
farmers and volunteer work in the community garden

* Family Farm Defenders, Madison, WI (national): $3,000 to establish a link
between farmers and consumers to promote sustainable agriculture and
community determination

* Hunger Action Network of New York State, Albany, NY (Synod of the
Northeast, Albany Presbytery): $2,000 to support community gardens,
sustainable agriculture, and seedling distribution

* Midwest Sustainable Agriculture Working Group, Iowa City, IA (national):
$5,000 to help farmers and rural people to support their advocacy efforts

* National Family Farm Coalition, Washington, DC (national): $8,000 to ensure
that farmers are not hurt by unfair trade agreements and have access to
affordable credits

* Neighborhood Nutrition Network, Gainesville, FL (Synod of South Atlantic,
St. Augustine Presbytery): $5,000 to address the root causes of hunger
through a youth entrepreneurial farm and food preservation project

* Noxubee County Farmers' Market, Macon, MS (Synod of Living Waters, St.
Andrew Presbytery): $2,480 to expand and promote the community farmers'
market

* Rooted in Community, San Francisco, CA (national) $4,500 to foster healthy
communities and food justice through urban and rural agriculture

* Rural & Migrant Ministry, Poughkeepsie, NY (Synod of the Northeast, Albany
Presbytery): $8,000 to change the laws in New York that deny farmworkers
equal rights

* Southern Mutual Help Association, New Iberia, LA (Synod of the Sun, South
Louisiana Presbytery): $5,000 to educate Louisiana policymakers on land use
and the need to preserve land for agriculture  

* Student Action with Farm Workers, Durham, NC (Synod of Mid-Atlantic, New
Hope Presbytery): $6,000 to train 30 bilingual college students to work in
rural North Carolina with migrant and seasonal workers

* Transfair USA, Oakland, CA (national): $4,000 to address the root causes of
hunger for small-scale farmers in developing countries

* White Earth Land Recovery Project, Ponsford, MN (Synod of Lake and
Prairies, Northern Plains Presbytery): $5,000 to recover traditional food
production practices in order to improve health conditions among the members
of the community

To subscribe or unsubscribe, please send an email to
pcusanews-subscribe-request@halak.pcusa.org or
pcusanews-unsubscribe-request@halak.pcusa.org

To contact the owner of the list, please send an email to
pcusanews-request@halak.pcusa.org