Hunger and Re-localization
May. 28th, 2008 03:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
helwenSharon Astyk's post today is on the increasing issues with hunger within the U.S. Has some interesting info on problems from the Great Depression, like farmers not being able to afford to ship their crops or sheep to the city, because the shipping cost more than they would get paid. And for those wondering why the sheep farmer killed his sheep rather than keeping them until the prices were better -- he couldn't afford to feed them. Pretty grim times.
Today, the food pantries are having the same sorts of problems, with donations down, more people needing their services, and the increase in gas prices making it more difficult to get the food from the food banks out to the pantries.
Think there isn't hunger in your backyard? Do a search for "food bank" or "food pantry" and the name of your state.
In Massachusetts, the Project Bread 2007 report notes that hunger and food insecurity are up 22% over the last reporting period.
As we head into summer and the end of school, kids who were getting free or subsidized meals at school won't be getting much of anything, because few places have adequate summer programs. As Sharon noted in her article, kids were discovered at a school in LA to be hording their lunches so they'd have something to eat around dinner time when they got home.
There's plenty of food in this country, but not everyone can afford to buy it.
***
Ashfield does a food pantry thing every other week. They used to ask for 80 dozen eggs (we sell the eggs to them, but at a lower price than market) -- now they are asking for 90 dozen, as of a couple of weeks ago.
***
Where does re-localization come in? If more food could be provided closer to where it's needed, it will cost the food pantries less. I'm hoping my crops do well this summer... and thinking about writing in to our local paper, to propose to home gardeners that if they have a decent year, they should give a bag or more of food to the food pantry folks -- between all of us, it should add up to enough to give some to each person in need. But first, need to find out who's in charge of the local pantry, to make sure they could handle something like this happening...
Today, the food pantries are having the same sorts of problems, with donations down, more people needing their services, and the increase in gas prices making it more difficult to get the food from the food banks out to the pantries.
Think there isn't hunger in your backyard? Do a search for "food bank" or "food pantry" and the name of your state.
In Massachusetts, the Project Bread 2007 report notes that hunger and food insecurity are up 22% over the last reporting period.
As we head into summer and the end of school, kids who were getting free or subsidized meals at school won't be getting much of anything, because few places have adequate summer programs. As Sharon noted in her article, kids were discovered at a school in LA to be hording their lunches so they'd have something to eat around dinner time when they got home.
There's plenty of food in this country, but not everyone can afford to buy it.
***
Ashfield does a food pantry thing every other week. They used to ask for 80 dozen eggs (we sell the eggs to them, but at a lower price than market) -- now they are asking for 90 dozen, as of a couple of weeks ago.
***
Where does re-localization come in? If more food could be provided closer to where it's needed, it will cost the food pantries less. I'm hoping my crops do well this summer... and thinking about writing in to our local paper, to propose to home gardeners that if they have a decent year, they should give a bag or more of food to the food pantry folks -- between all of us, it should add up to enough to give some to each person in need. But first, need to find out who's in charge of the local pantry, to make sure they could handle something like this happening...
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Date: 2008-05-28 10:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-05-29 03:17 am (UTC)And, extra tomatoes (or more than I could handle while moving!!) were part of how I 'paid' for help with moving and with fixing up the house for sale. A small pittance considering the invaluable help we got from some of our friends -- and the company was nice too.