As a faith community, how can we make a difference in the fight to end hunger?
Programs such as the Alliance to End Hunger is making a significant difference in the world; reducing the poverty rate, cutting down the number of deaths per day and creating more efficient delivery methods. In spite of this the government isn’t as involved as we may think they are.
Tony P. Hall is a former congressman, ambassador, and executive director emeritus of the Alliance to End Hunger. He addresses the lack of interest in combating poverty among government officials.
“This issue of hunger and development assistance is not a high priority item among members of Congress and our elected officials, I’m sorry to say.”
Tony says a possible cause is that those who are in need, the poor and voiceless, are not a priority.
“The poor, the sick, the aliens, people that Jesus talks a lot about, they don’t have a big voice in the congress. They don’t necessarily get in to see the congressman, they don’t have campaign packs, they’re not the greatest voters in the world. They are the voiceless.”
Tony shares a few thoughts from his personal experience.
“One of the big frustrating things to me about this issue, that I have worked on for probably 35 years, is that it is not a big issue with our elected officials. Yes, there are a couple that are interested in it; a couple senators, a couple U.S. House members, but overall it’s not a big issue.”
One of the hallmarks of the Alliance to End Hunger is about building partnerships with large corporations, non-profit organizations and universities.
Why is it important that we join the fight against hunger?
“If you’re going to solve this problem of hunger you’ve got to bring everybody into the room.”
“Hunger doesn’t just belong with the government, it belongs with everybody. It belongs with the faith based community, it belongs with businesses, and it belongs with the non-profits and with the universities.”
There are a lot of transferable skills that the faith community can learn from businesses and apply them in the fight to end hunger.
“We have a lot of large corporations and small corporations; they have a lot to contribute. There’s no reason to freeze them out; they have they are smart, they know logistics, they know aquaculture, everybody should come in the room and address this problem. This this issue belongs to everybody.”
