| Sense of community can stave off hunger crisis |
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Written by: Ron Hays, President of Marion-Polk Food Share
It is hard, sometimes, to face the job I am called to do: serve as the point person for the local charity leading the fight to end hunger in Marion and Polk counties.
The numbers right now are staggering. Marion-Polk Food Share network charities gave out a record 77,462 food boxes during the year of July 2008 through June 2009.
This represents a 27 percent increase in need over just two years ago, and the people most affected by hunger aren't who you'd think they would be. In our area, 44 percent of those eating from food boxes are children.
It's not just Marion-Polk Food Share numbers that are worrisome. The newest figures from Children First for Oregon show that more than 20 percent of the children in Marion County (16,446 children) are in poverty.
School district numbers indicate that the number of children in Marion and Polk county schools who are on free and reduced-price lunches has risen from 49.8 percent two years ago to 57.3 percent, an increase of 5,052 more students for a total of 37,422.
National studies rank Oregon at No. 2 for the highest level of hunger among the 50 states.
We have heard federal leaders call for the end to childhood hunger by 2015. That date, six years off, seems so far away when I must be concerned with what the rest of 2009 may bring, and what happens in 2010.
As I face each new day on the job, I know firsthand that behind all of the numbers are the faces of individuals, young and old, who are our friends and relatives and neighbors. How can we wait until 2015, knowing this?
Right now, as is common at the end of the summer, our food supply is running low and many of the volunteers manning the 83 member charities that receive food from Marion-Polk Food Share are beginning to feel concern as inventories dwindle. My anxiety also rises, but I have faith in the generosity of the people who live in these two counties.
I look back in history and remember that a couple of hundred years ago, the founders of our country paused at this time of year to give thanks for an abundance that they hoped would see them through a difficult winter. They did not really have a lot, nor had they been experiencing an easy time in their struggles to make a home in this new land. But they were thankful for life, for adequate provisions and for the kindness of neighbors. They were thankful for community.
The struggles we face here in our two-county region today are different than those of our forefathers, but the solution has not changed. By pulling together, neighbor helping neighbor in time of need, we can all get through our current challenges.
I can honestly say that the caring and compassion I see local residents show toward one another makes me feel blessed and proud to live in the Mid-Willamette Valley. When we step forward to help our neighbors, we are a community in the truest sense of the word.
It is with the comforting knowledge that there are thousands of local residents who are standing with me, that I can face the job I am called to do.
Please join us.
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