Nourishing Change- December 2014

December 2014

News

Name Change: Nourish Network for the Right to Food

WhyHunger believes that nutritious food is a human right, protecting the right for all people to live in dignity, free from hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition. It is both an idea that inspires action and a global legal framework for coordinated reform in food and agriculture. After 39 years of work to combat hunger in the U.S., WhyHunger is renaming its signature program working with emergency food providers to Nourish Network for the Right to Food. Using the language "right to food" reinforces and reinvigorates our understanding of how to end chronic hunger in the U.S. We invite you to join us.

Along with this change, we are unveiling a new national number, 1(800) 5HUNGRY, to help connect families in need with emergency food services via the WhyHunger Hotline. While we are no longer under government contract to operate the Clearinghouse, we are leveraging this opportunity to use the WhyHunger Hotline and Nourish Network database to better serve our broader goals of healthy, affordable food for all.

The long-term goal and vision of the program revolves around transforming the charitable response to hunger in the U.S. into a more equitable and inclusive social justice movement that recognizes nutritious food as a right.

Our goals are to continue to improve health outcomes, support grassroots leadership and organizing, and build power to strengthen the food justice movement through information sharing, capacity building, advocacy, technical support, financial assistance and networking. Stay tuned for more details.

We recognize that our audience for this monthly newsletter, now called Nourishing Change, includes thousands of innovative emergency food providers who are interested in sharing resources and who are concerned about social justice and community food security. Thank you for all you do. We look forward to continuing this journey to end hunger with you. Onward!

Stories from the WhyHunger Hotline: Searching for Healthier Food Options

A caller from Las Vegas, Nevada contacted the WhyHunger Hotline, 1(800) 5HUNGRY. She is a disabled 79 year old woman who saw a brochure about the Senior Farmer's Market Nutrition Program. She wanted to contact the program because she wanted to have some healthier options. She stated that some food banks she has been to don't exactly offer or have healthy choices. The Hotline advocate let her how that we're working on expanding our database to include healthier resources so in the near future she can call us and be referred to additional places. She was happy about this. For now, the advocate provided the number for the Las Vegas farmers market, contact information for SFMNP and pantries in her area.

Hunger and Health

Hunger and Medication Underuse

A study in the American Journal of Medicine, "Treat or Eat: Food Insecurity Linked to Cost-Related Medication Underuse in Chronically Ill Americans" demonstrates the connection between food insecurity and medication underuse, or taking less medication than prescribed or not taking it at all due to financial concerns. Participants with both food insecurity and medication underuse were more likely to be Hispanic or non-Hispanic black, were more likely to have several chronic conditions, and to lack insurance.

"The high overall prevalence of food insecurity and cost-related medication underuse highlights how difficult successful chronic disease management in the current social environment is," says lead investigator Seth A. Berkowitz, MD, Division of General Internal Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. "These findings suggest residual unmet needs for food-insecure participants and thus have clear implications for health policy."

While Medicaid and the WIC program helped participants who were eligible, the study also points to a need to examine eligibility requirements to reach under-resourced groups. The full study is available for a fee, or you can read the full press release here.

Building The Movement

What We're Reading Now: What Ferguson Can Teach the Food Movement

"And my husband is six feet under, and I'm looking for a way to feed my kids now."

- Esaw Garner, widow of Eric Garner

"Tangled Roots and Bitter Fruit: What Ferguson can teach the food movement," by Eric Holt-Giménez, the Executive Director of WhyHunger's partner Food First, touches on the perpetuation of racism in our society at large and within the food movement. Holt-Gimenez makes the argument that the two go hand-in-hand because "all the organic carrots and farmers markets in the world are not going to end hunger unless we also end racism. Not just the racism inherent to our food system, but its pervasiveness in the food movement itself."

It is important to educate ourselves about police brutality in our own communities, and to engage in conversation with our colleagues, neighbors and families about how to dismantle the systems that sustain it. While the connection between food justice and racism is not often readily made, it is incumbent upon us as anti-hunger movement builders to learn about the structural oppression inherent in our food system. As Holt-Gimenez argues, we cannot shy away from the painful but critical truth that if we do not dismantle oppression, we will we never dismantle hunger.

WhyHunger also recommends reading and studying the Center for Social Inclusion's Building the Case for Racial Equity in the Food System, which helps put a racial lens on out food system, which "works for some, but fails for too many of us."

Agroecological Approaches to Poverty, Migration and Landlessness

Exploitation and marginalization are a reality in the lives of many living in border communities in the U.S. In the latest publication of the "Food Justice Voices" series, Alma Maquitico writes about the approach of agroecology as a practice to ensure human rights and strengthen the inherent resilience of the borderlands.

Resources

2014 U.S. Conference of Mayors Survey on Hunger and Homelessness

Seventy-one percent of cities included in this year's U.S. Conference of Mayors "Survey on Hunger and Homelessness" reported an increase in requests for emergency food assistance, with a number of cities citing recent benefit cuts contributing to this increased demand.

Cities are at the forefront of those recognizing the value of government nutrition programs. One-third of surveyed cities called for SNAP benefits to be increased. Two cities- St. Paul, MN and Trenton, NJ- specifically cited "lack of SNAP benefits" as a main cause of hunger. And when asked about some of the biggest challenges to addressing hunger, a number of cities said their emergency food providers were unable to keep with the growing need caused by cuts to SNAP and other benefit programs. Read the full report here.

In This Issue

Name Change: Nourish Network for the Right to Food

Stories from the WhyHunger Hotline: Searching for Healthier Food Options

Hunger and Medication Underuse

What We're Reading Now: What Ferguson Can Teach the Food Movement

Agroecological Approaches to Poverty, Migration and Landlessness

2014 U.S. Conference of Mayors Survey on Hunger and Homelessness

Please verify that your organization's profile is accurate in the database. To update your record, email database@whyhunger.org. If your organization is not in the database, please join us here.

Nourishing Change is meant to encourage conversation and dialogue about transforming communities, community food security and the emergency food system. We want to hear from you! Email us at nourish@whyhunger.org.

Nourish Network for the Right to Food

WhyHunger

505 8th Ave, Ste 2100

New York, New York 10018

nourish@whyhunger.org

212-629-8850

Contributors: Betty Fermin and Jessica Powers.