Mike, a single father from a small town in Florida, called after finding the number for the National Hunger Hotline in the phonebook. His ex-wife had recently moved to Ohio with their two daughters, ceding him custody of their 3 year-old son. Mike explained that he was unemployed but searching for a job, and that he was also working to sort out some administrative problems with his SNAP case and his son's Medicaid coverage.

Because he was not receiving benefits, Mike depended on the food pantries in his area, but was only allowed to visit once a month and only received enough food for a few meals. Sometimes food pantry volunteers were kind and gave him an extra bottle of juice or box of mac and cheese for his son, because they knew he wasn't getting food stamps, but it still wasn't enough. He told the Hotline advocate that this was the first time he had ever been responsible for a child on his own and that his son was his "best friend in the world." He made sure his toddler son was able to eat two to three meals each day, but this was by reducing his own intake to one meal a day.

The Hotline advocate gave Mike contact information for his local food bank, several more food pantries and the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, because he was having trouble paying his utility bills. She also told Mike about the Summer Food Service Program, which provides children in low-income areas with free meals during the summer.

The National Hunger Hotline 1-866-3 HUNGRY and 1-877-8 HAMBRE (1-866-348-6479 and 1-877-842-6273) refers people in need of emergency food assistance to food pantries, government programs, and model grassroots organizations that work to improve access to healthy, nutritious food, and build self-reliance. Help is available on Monday through Friday from 9am-6pm EST. Hablamos español. The Hotline is funded in part by the USDA Food and Nutrition Service.

Nourishing Change is an engaging and important new report from the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice at the NYU School of Law, punctuated with emotional stories of people facing hunger and reflections from those who have been working to end hunger for years (including WhyHunger's Senior Director of Programs, Alison Cohen). Looking at the US response to hunger through the framework of the right to food, the authors recommend that that government must adopt a new approach to the problem: "Food insecurity in the United States is not the result of a shortage of food or of resources; it is the result of poverty and of policies and programs that fail to prioritize the needs of low-income Americans. Despite the magnitude of the problem, and its far-reaching implications, eradicating food insecurity has not been a political priority. Instead of addressing critical gaps in food assistance, the U.S. government is considering severe funding cuts and other reforms to [nutrition programs] that could strip millions of Americans of crucial support, exacerbate already alarming rates of food insecurity, and push families into deeper crisis."

In March, a group of US and Canadian scholars and leaders of organizations addressing hunger submitted to the Director-General José Graziano da Silva of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations a document entitled "Communication for Discussion."

In it, they raise critical concerns about the core messages of the 2012 edition of the pre-eminent annual report on hunger worldwide, the agency's The State of Food Insecurity in the World. After useful exchanges with key leaders within the FAO, they amended their response to reflect what was learned and are pleased to make publicly available their submission to the Director-General. The authors appreciate the agency's vital work, especially that furthering small holder, sustainable agriculture. Their desire for the agency's success is part of what motivates them. They hope the questions raised can deepen the debate about how to end hunger. Read "Framing Hunger" in its entirety or the factsheet.