Friday, May 09, 2008
Editorial: Our little piece of world hunger
This year's Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive comes at a time when regional and global forces are driving demand at area food banks.
From the RoundTable blog
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There are no food riots in the U.S. There's no unrest on the streets threatening to topple the government in Washington. Unlike in the developing world, there is no fear of widespread starvation.
Americans haven't been spared the global spike in food prices, though. The difference in impact has been a matter of degree. Grocery bills rose 5 percent overall last year -- some basic foods by many times more -- and U.S. families are hurting.
They need help.
Mail carriers will be addressing that need Saturday, when they will pick up donations of nonperishable food as they go door to door delivering mail. The success of the annual Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive will depend on how generous the public is able, and willing, to be.
In the Roanoke Valley, 200 letter carriers hope to help the Southwestern Virginia Second Harvest Food Bank gather 150,000 pounds of food. Any household that can spare a few cans or boxes of food should bag them up and set them out for the postman.
Every year for the past 15 years, the food drive has been accompanied by heartfelt appeals for people who have more than enough to share with those who have too little. Each year, the need has been real.
This year, the U.S. economic downturn and changing global dynamics -- a rise in demand for energy and in the diversion of food-producing land to biofuels -- add urgency to the plea.
America's Second Harvest, which touts itself as the nation's largest hunger-relief organization, promises to study the underlying causes of the food-cost spiral and look for public policy options to moderate the increases or at least mitigate their impact on low-income people.
Meanwhile, communities need to deal with the effects.
Family budgets are being hit hard by a double whammy of higher food and fuel costs. And in this part of Virginia, the regional food bank reports, more laid-off workers are turning to food distribution centers in communities still buffeted by old-economy dislocations as textile and furniture plants continue to close.
The Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive won't do that this year, certainly. But organizers have set a reachable goal.
With people spending more to fill up their gas tanks and their grocery carts, donations will be all the dearer to make this year -- and all the more needed.
