Inside the
Summer Issue:
Harry Chapin’s
“Ripple” of Influence
Grows Every Day
Jen Chapin Leads Us
On A Lushly-Written
Journey Into Her Life
In “Ready”
WHY Takes Holistic
Approach to Fight
Hunger & Poverty
DMC’s New Disc
Strikes Many Chords
Hard Rock Café
Serves Up Benefit CD
to Fight Hunger
When Howie Met Harry:
Catching Up With
Drummer Howard Fields
Performing Artist
Inspires Audiences
Through Prose
Celestial Cross-Pollination
Yields a Harry Chapin-
Dante Anthology of
Student Essays
Amish Farmers’ Co-op
Finds Innovation in
Simpler Ways
Still Wild About Harry
Behind the CD “Cause”
Do Something!
Click below
to read previous
issues of Circle!
WHY Takes Holistic Approach
to Fight Hunger & Poverty
by Jen Chapin
WHY's approach to the problems of hunger and poverty has always been holistic.
From the beginning, we have aimed to understand and address the root causes of hunger and poverty and thus have taken into account the political, economic, social, environmental and other factors that interact to result in such a tragic and unnecessary blight on society.
Nationally and internationally, we have explored the realms of agriculture, education, housing, health care, nutrition, wages, civil rights, all levels of policy and governance, etc. We have aligned with a wide spectrum of anti-hunger organizations, academics, policy makers, media and businesses, and have always sought to humbly learn as much as we can from them while also sharing what we know.
An early teacher to Harry and Bill was author/activist Frances Moore Lappˇ, whose groundbreaking book "Diet for a Small Planet" presented the compelling idea that our personal food choices are connected to the overall food system and the health of the planet.
Today, WHY is an important leader in the Food Security movement that has taken up the challenge of transforming the overall food system so that it better serves poor people and us all, at home and abroad. We are looking at big questions like food aid and "free" trade, smaller questions like how we make individual choices as consumers and citizens that affect our health, markets, and the food system, and everything in between.
Food system, food security — what do they mean? Anyone who reads the news these days knows that we are in the middle of expanding epidemics of obesity, diabetes and related health problems. We also know about the disappearance of family farms and the relentless consolidation of food production and wonder whether it is only nostalgia for times past that makes this seem tragic.
These problems disproportionately affect the poor and vulnerable that are WHY's primary concern. However, just as WHY has always insisted that hunger and poverty affect us all, we are now increasingly seeing that the sickness that afflicts our food system and threatens our food security is something none of us can fully escape from, whatever our privilege and income levels.
Here are the symptoms of a food system that is sick:
- Epidemics in the mostly avoidable afflictions of obesity, Type-II diabetes, and heart disease, especially among children;
- A society where a "convenience store" offers food that is not only non-essential, but most often dangerous. In rural and inner-city neighborhoods across the country, the most accessible food is heavily processed and packaged and packed with sugar, salt and fat; in bodegas, gas stations, and strip-mall delis. What if it was "convenient" and appealing to buy fresh vegetables and fruits?;
- Middle and high-income kids whose parents, despite their education and income, feel outmatched by the ubiquitous marketing that presents colorful, cartoon-character adorned sugary products as being "food";
- Low-income kids whose families lack the resources, education and transportation to buy nutritious food: vegetables, fruit, unprocessed meats, whole-grain breads and cereals, etc.;
- An agricultural system that pays corporate farmers to make more of what is not needed, necessitating the creation of new "uses" for commodities like corn. High-fructose corn syrup was invented decades ago in response to agricultural surpluses and now appears in the majority of so called fruit juices, other beverages, and snack foods. Sugar, like gas, has been made irresistibly cheap by government subsidies beyond what an actual free market would dictate, and is therefore forced into more and more products;
- Local, small farmers, from Mali to Mexico to Massachusetts, who are unable to compete with corporate-produced, heavily mechanized agricultural products from the U.S. and Europe thanks to so-called "free-trade" policies. Therefore we have a Mexican farmer, who once fed his family with tortillas from his own farm and sold the excess in the local market at a real price, going head to head with American subsidized corn where there is no chance to compete. He loses his land and is forced into a depressed wage economy and possibly is forced to illegally immigrate to the US. Poverty and dependency has been harvested where there was sustainability and self-reliance. Who benefits from this series of events?;
- The mass-marketed exportation of our bad food habits and products to the rest of the world — an average American meal that travels 1500 miles from farm to plate. The story of this meal is one of huge expenditures of fuel for mechanized agriculture and transportation by air and truck and in petroleum-based and chemical fertilizers. Meats are mass-produced with antibiotics and hormones. The food is cheap, but what is the price to taxpayers in paying for militaristic foreign policy that protects cheap oil sources? In paying for corporate farm subsidies, toxic cleanups and water sourcing? What is the price to our health care system in treating the inevitable symptoms of poor diet? What is the price to our environment when chemical run-off from mega-farms is a primary source of pollution and wasteful irrigation practices are the primary drains on our fresh water supply? What is the cost to our food security to have our supply so centralized among a diminishing number of growers and processing entities, and to have it so dependant on a cheap and plentiful fossil fuel supply? What is the cost to our personal health and well-being?
 | WHY for Change On May 18, WHY (World Hunger Year), in partnership with the Atlanta Community Food Bank, hosted the Southern Agenda for Change. This conference was designed to incite grassroots change in the Southeastern United States, a region long neglected by government, philanthropists and the media. The day-long conference featured presentations by model organizations, break out sessions that allowed participants to strategize with and learn from each other, and an afternoon training in community organizing and lobbying. |
What is WHY doing to address these symptoms and their underlying causes?
- The Food Security Learning Center — worldhungeryear.org/fslc — the central place online where information is pulled together and made accessible on: community food security (Community Supported Agriculture, Community Gardens, Farmers' Markets, Local & Regional Food Systems, Farm to Cafeteria, Community Food Assessment, Food Policy Councils) nutrition, domestic hunger and poverty, federal food programs, rural poverty, the family farm crisis, and migrant workers;
- "Building the Bridge" — educating and supporting emergency food providers (as well as schools and other influential food-providing institutions) so that they provide more nutritious, organic and local food to their clients, thereby supporting local family farms while building nutrition habits, access and awareness with low-income people;
- Reinvesting in America - identifying and supporting innovative and effective grassroots action that empowers individuals and communities through leadership; development, sustainable agriculture, community gardens, job, life skills and financial literacy training, after-school programs;
- The USDA Clearinghouse/hunger hotline, collecting and circulating valuable, accessible information that helps people to help themselves and their families every day;
- KIDS Can Make a Difference empowers young people to understand and act to improve their own food choices and the functionality and justice of the overall food system;
- WHY International — engaging in constructive international dialogues with other organizations and policy players, at venues like the upcoming World Social Forum in Caracas;
- Leading the national debate and organizing movements like at the Southern Agenda for Change in May in Atlanta;
- Recognizing media and self-reliance groups that address these questions, and gathering awardees and others in our annual awards forum;
- Working in coalitions and as an organization to impact policy.
Jen Chapin is Chair of WHY’s Board of Directors.
Visit WHY’s website at worldhungeryear.org to make
an instant on-line donation or to learn about other ways
to help fight hunger. Jen’s website is jenchapin.com.
Watch for the Next Issue of Circle! on September 7