wfn.org | Fast Food: PC(USA) among Members of Hunger-Aid Coalition

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4-March-1999 
99090 
 
    Fast Food:  PC(USA) among Members 
    of Hunger-Aid Coalition 
 
    by Evan Silverstein 
 
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - When a natural disaster destroys a region's food supply, 
as Hurricane Mitch did last year in Central America, the need is immediate: 
Parents of malnourished children can't wait out the weeks or months it 
often takes for food aid to wend its way through government and private 
bureaucracies. 
 
    Presbyterian disaster-aid officials have joined with other Christian 
agencies in a new quick-response coalition whose aim is to see that no one 
goes hungry. 
 
    The Foods Resource Bank (FRB), a non-profit U.S.-based coalition of 
religious denominations, church agencies and Christian hunger-relief 
organizations, plans eventually to distribute $20 million annually in 
food-related aid. 
 
    The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) got in on the ground floor last week 
when its disaster assistance advisory committee approved a $150,000 
contribution to the food bank's proposed $6 million first-year budget. The 
initial FRB project, a shipment of crop seedlings to northeastern Russia, 
is scheduled for early May. 
 
    The program, modeled on the 15-year-old Canadian Foodgrains Bank, will 
channel aid to regions pummeled by disaster, famine and/or drought. FRB 
participants include some of religion's most respected names in 
humanitarian aid, including United Methodist Committee on Relief (UNCOR) 
and Church World Service (CWS), the relief arm of the National Council of 
Churches. 
 
    "We found it quite astounding that, in all these years, the richest 
agricultural nation in the world, the U.S., has not done anything similar," 
said Susan Ryan, coordinator of PC(USA)'s disaster assistance program and a 
food bank steering committee member. "It's been a very, very successful 
operation, and as small as Canada is (in population), we have found that 
they leverage just incredible amounts of grain into emergency situations." 
 
    The FRB, whose logo depicts a plant sprouting from a seed-shaped globe, 
will open a permanent home office in the Washington D.C. area by April. 
 
    During its Feb. 25-27 meeting in Louisville and Jeffersonville, Ind., 
the advisory committee unanimously approved a plan calling for Presbyterian 
Disaster Assistance (PDA) to contribute $50,000 a year to the FRB for three 
years. The money will come from proceeds of the One Great Hour of Sharing 
program. PDA is one of three agencies supported by the charitable offering. 
 
    Other agencies that have participated in food bank meetings are the 
Christian Alliance for Humanitarian Aid, Feed My People International, 
Seeds Programs, Inc., and Stop Hunger Now, a one-year-old hunger-relief 
organization that has been heavily involved in the food bank's fund-raising 
efforts. 
 
    Farmers, agribusinesses and farming advocacy representatives are 
expected to participate in the food bank. Its board will include five 
denominational representatives. F. Lloyd Rollins, who heads UMCOR, has been 
named director; he was en route to Africa on March 3 and could not be 
reached for comment. 
 
    "It looks like it's not only much needed, but will be able to come 
together and do a lot of really good things," said Patricia Streeter, a 
representative of Stop Hunger Now, which has ties to the United Methodist 
Church. 
 
    The food bank plans to focus this year on aid to Africa (Democratic 
Republic of Congo, Liberia and Sierra Leone), the Balkans (Kosovo, 
Montenegro and Albania) and Cuba. 
 
                            How it will work 
 
    The program will operate a centralized food-banking and distribution 
system whose member agencies will be able to withdraw resources from their 
accounts to support projects developed in conjunction with overseas 
partners. Offerings will include wheat, rice, corn, soybeans and seeds for 
planting. 
 
    The FRB also plans to provide tools and equipment for irrigation and 
development assistance to help refurbish crop supplies. Meanwhile, 
officials will try to find effective long-term solutions to hunger. 
 
    "This will not be just food relief, but we will be looking at seeds, at 
fertilizers and at piping for irrigation," said Ryan. "Whatever it takes to 
 ... bring people through the hunger phase and into a position of food 
security." 
 
    The FRB will serve as the main fund-raiser for its partners, collecting 
grain and other resources from donors. When food and cash donations are 
received from farmers, the church community, the federal government and the 
public, they will be deposited into partner accounts or into a general 
account to be used by all partners. 
 
    The idea has "resurrected the old sort of farm raising that we used to 
see in the U.S. where rural communities really came together," said Ryan. 
"They go to their suppliers and they get all their seeds, fertilizers, 
everything donated for the field." 
 
                                A tall order 
 
    The effort has been unfolding quickly, prompting some committee members 
to question whether the program has come too far too soon. Food -bank 
officials have met only three times in just over four months. 
 
    FRB already has a full itinerary of assistance projects, beginning in 
early May with aid targeted for northeastern Russia, an area that suffers 
from continuous food shortages. The project will provide agricultural seeds 
to "vulnerable" people in St. Petersburg and in rural areas - in time for 
the planting season. 
 
    One CWS representative said she believes the agency will be feeding the 
hungry by May. 
 
    "I think maybe not fully completed by that point, but certainly doable 
to begin providing some resources," said Donna Derr, acting director of the 
CWS emergency relief fund, a member (along with Ryan) of the bank's 
"Genesis" group, which is overseeing FRB's development. 
 
    Joan Abell, the committee chair, who has called the program a "very 
important concept," wondered about the time frame: "For something to 
develop in four months only scares me just a little." 
 
    Committee member Richard Krajeski raised similar concerns before voting 
for the program. 
 
    "There may be bugs in this, but are you going to choose bugs in a 
process - or the saving of lives of people?" Krajeski asked. "And then I 
would say, `Thank you for doing this in only four months.' The bugs we can 
handle. We can't bring people back to life.'" 
 
    Ryan reassured committee members that the rapid pace probably won't be 
a drawback, especially since the idea already has a proven track record. 
 
    "We're not inventing anything new," he said. "We're expanding what's 
been a very solid model for 15 years in Canada." 
 
    In other action, the committee: 
 
    * reviewed and adopted funding guidelines for the asylum network _ an 
organization of ministries providing services to asylum seekers; 
    * approved participation in various coalitions related to the PDA 
program, including the National Organization of Volunteers Active in 
Disaster, the U.S. Committee for Refugees and the Women's Committee for 
Refugees; 
    * welcomed Tony Aja, a new Associate for Immigrant Groups in the U.S.A. 
in Evangelism/Church Development; and, 
    * commented favorably on PDA's growth in providing opportunities for 
churches to send disaster-recovery teams internationally. 
 
    Last year the number of relief teams sponsored by the PDA grew from 
zero to five. Two additional teams are expected to come on board in the 
next two months. 

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