wfn.org | [UMNS-ALL-NEWS] UMNS# 296-Food shortages hurt church response to hunger

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

>Food shortages hurt church response to hunger

>Jul. 15, 2008

NOTE: Photographs and related stories are available at  http://umns.umc.org.

>A UMNS Report By Linda Bloom*

For Marian Kelly, the sweet potato is an indicator of how the food  market has changed.

In the past, the director of the potato project for the Society of St.  Andrew would start receiving donations in March of older sweet potatoes  from the previous year's crop. "The farmers couldn't really sell  everything they had in storage," she explained.

Through its potato project, the United Methodist-related organization  takes these donations of edible but unmarketable potatoes and delivers  them to agencies that serve the poor. Donations for sweet potatoes have  averaged a couple of million pounds within a three-month period.

During last two years, however, "we have noticed that it was getting  later in the spring before the farmers started donating sweet potatoes  to us," Kelly said.

She attributed several reasons to the delay in both delivery and  tonnage. Sweet potatoes are being served in more restaurants, both baked  and as fries, and they can be converted into a flour-like substance to  enrich cake and other baking mixes.

More significantly, the use of corn in biofuels has directly impacted  sweet potato use. Sweet potatoes are being used as a corn substitute--as  a filler in dried pet food, for example--or are simply not planted as  much as more acreage "is being diverted to raising corn for ethanol  purposes," she said.

The net result will be a decrease in the number of "sweet potato drops"  conducted by the Society of St. Andrew. In general, according to Kelly,  donations are down. The organization moved just over 20 million pounds  of food last year, compared to 30 million in 2006.

Additional fundraising will be a necessity. "It used to be that we could  move food for a penny a serving a very few years ago," she said. "Now  it's at least 2 cents a serving and even more."

>Food, fuel prices soar

The impact of soaring food and fuel prices continues to make the news.  In a July 2 letter to the "Group of Eight" world leaders meeting in  Japan, World Bank President Robert Zoellick wrote about the implications  of the "negative shock" of the high cost of commodities on the gross  domestic product of the world's 41 poorest countries. "For the most  vulnerable, especially poor children, they (GDP numbers) mean  malnutrition, reduced resistance to disease, and too often death," he  said.

On July 11, U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs John  Holmes announced that about 14 million people in the Horn of Africa are  "in urgent need of food aid and other humanitarian assistance" because  drought coupled with fuel and food price hikes are crippling local  agricultural production.

An earlier report from U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization found 22  countries more vulnerable to such price increases because of the  dependence on imports and the fact that many in those countries already  are hungry.

>Faith response

The magnitude of the crisis is shaping the response of religious  denominations and church-related organizations.

The United Methodist Committee on Relief already has a variety of  programs that include food security as a component. Relief work in  Sudan, for example, has included seeds, tools and land for displaced  farmers. Milk-bearing goats in Afghanistan provide families with milk,  wool and additional income. UMCOR's Armenia program assists children and  adults in institutional settings with a nutritious diet.

But the agency recently created a Global Food Crisis Fund to provide a  broader way for the church to respond and be part of the solution to  world hunger, according to the Rev. Sam Dixon, UMCOR's chief executive.  The fund will allow them to address spot crises and strengthen various  agricultural projects around the world, he said.

At Church World Service, a three-person team of staff executives was  appointed by the Rev. John McCullough, a United Methodist pastor who  leads the ecumenical organization, to look at the food crisis. The five  regional coordinators for CWS, who met in June, have been asked to  prioritize programs in their regions that impact food security.

A key priority will be fighting malnutrition in children ages 5 and  under, according to Richard Williams, a United Methodist and director of  the CWS social and economic development program. "We feel that will be  of paramount importance," he said. "If you don't catch them early, you  will lose a generation."

CWS is involved in a number of programs aimed at helping communities  provide for their own food supply and sell excess food at market for  additional income. In Guatemala, for example, the agency has partnered  with the Food Resources Bank, UMCOR and other denominations to help  indigenous families build greenhouses and patio gardens to grow  vegetables.

>CROP Walks

For years, Church World Service has raised money to address hunger and  poverty issues--through projects such as the one in Guatemala--with its  Communities Responding to Overcome Poverty Walk, more commonly known as  the CROP Walk.

Many United Methodists are among interfaith walkers in some 2,000 U.S.  cities and towns who participate in the annual event. A portion of the  money raised is used for hunger relief in each community.

Williams hopes local churches will continue to participate in CROP  Walks. "This increases the resources we have to put toward food security  programs," he said. "That's how the average person can really make a  difference."

At Stop Hunger Now, the focus is on both immediate relief and social  solutions to hunger. "Long term, we're never going to end hunger dealing  with crisis situations," said the Rev. Ray Buchanan, a United Methodist  pastor who is the organization's founder and president.

He considers Haiti to be the "worst-case scenario" when it comes to  hunger in the Western Hemisphere. In April, thousands of hungry Haitians  were held back by U.N. peacekeeping troops as they demonstrated at the  presidential palace. Soon afterward, Prime Minister Jacques-Édouard  Alexis was voted out of office by opposition party lawmakers.

In the past two years, his agency has delivered two and a half million  meals to Haiti, including about half a million in cooperation with  UMCOR. Stop Hunger Now tries to think beyond immediate needs by  providing meals to schools as an incentive for school attendance.

Information on how to donate to the Global Food Crisis Fund, UMCOR  Advance No. 3019696, and the various other hunger-related organizations  and projects supported by the United Methodist Advance can be found by  typing the ministry name, project number or the word "hunger" into the  search box at www.givetomission.org.

*Bloom is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in New York.

News media contact: Linda Bloom, New York, (646) 369-3759 or  newsdesk@umcom.org.

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United Methodist News Service Photos and stories also available at: http://umns.umc.org

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