wfn.org | New Foods Resource Bank 'can change the face of hunger'

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

May 12, 1999 News media contact: Linda Bloom*(212) 870-3803*New York
10-21-71B{268}

By United Methodist News Service 

An ecumenical coalition has been launched to provide hundreds of thousands
of tons of food and commodities to communities in need.

The Foods Resource Bank had its founding meeting May 7-8 in Kansas City. The
bank was conceived by F. Lloyd Rollins, who has become its first executive
director. Until recently, Rollins was an executive with the United Methodist
Committee on Relief (UMCOR).

The idea, Rollins said in a May 11 interview, is to take advantage of
excesses in particular crops or commodities, such as corn or pork, and be
able to get them to parts of the world where food is desperately needed.

Modeled after the Canadian Food Grains Bank, the organization will encourage
farmers and agribusinesses to make donations that would then be distributed
through religious and nonprofit relief groups. Organizers hope that
eventually the U.S. government will make matching donations, especially in
bulk food.

"The potential of the Foods Resource Bank is probably greater than any other
anti-hunger organization I've ever worked with," said the Rev. Ray Buchanan,
the United Methodist pastor who founded Stop Hunger Now. Buchanan led the
steering committee to set up the foods bank and is chairman of its board of
directors.  

By operating from the concept of food as a basic human right and addressing
that right in terms of achieving food security, not just offering temporary
relief, the Food Resources Bank "can change the face of hunger around the
world," Buchanan asserted.

Food security is defined as having access, at all times, to enough food to
lead an active, healthy life.

Dirk Van Gorp, a former UMCOR employee who worked on the foods bank idea
with Rollins, is the organization's international program director. Several
corporate sponsors, along with various denominations, are footing the bank's
administrative costs. "We will never mix administration (costs) with
program," Rollins said. 

UMCOR has committed $600,000 to the Foods Resource Bank over a three-year
period. The Rev. Paul Dirdak, UMCOR's chief executive, explained that the
organization will allow relief groups to send hundreds of thousands of tons
of food "where we sent tens (of thousands) before."

In a written overview of its goals, the bank's members and implementing
partners "understand that our response through humanitarian assistance
includes the resources required to ensure long-term sustainable agricultural
and/or food production, adequate community nutrition and immediate food
relief during times of emergency, disaster and crisis."

The food itself will be distributed through the bank's implementing
partners, which may include Christian churches, agencies, councils or other
ecumenical structures; grass roots or community organizations; and local,
national and international nongovernmental organizations.

Besides the United Methodists, other participating groups include
Presbyterian Disaster Services, Church World Service, the Brethren Church,
Mennonite Central Committee, Action By Churches Together, Christian Reform
World Relief Committee, Nazarene Compassionate Ministries, Christian
Alliance for Humanitarian Aid, Feed My People International, Stop Hunger
Now, Alliance of Christian Farmers and Amigos Internationales.

Rollins is operating out of a temporary office at the Annandale (Va.) United
Methodist Church. He can be contacted by telephone at (703) 256-8207 or
e-mail at Lrollins@mcimail.com.
  
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