Posts By: Andrew Kang Bartlett

November 21, 2011

Addressing the root causes of hunger

Posted 10:33am

The Presbyterian Hunger Program has provided more than $100 million in financial support to effective groups in the U.S. and overseas since it was established in 1969. The five below are just a few of these initiatives, which are alleviating and striving to address the underlying causes of hunger.

Alabama Arise

Arise members speak out on income tax threshold

In response to a new report citing Alabama’s high income tax on the poor, a Huntsville TV station turned to Arise members for comment. Dale Clem, pastor of Monte Sano United Methodist Church and an ACPP board member, and Dick Hiatt, executive director of the North Alabama Food Bank, an ACPP member group, voice their concerns about Alabama’s upside-down tax system in this news clip. View news video here. Read ARISE news release here.

Alabama Arise is helping low-income families build a future with individual development accounts (IDAs). Under guidelines set forth by federal Assets for Independence Act of 1998, participants can get a “double match” for up to $2000 they save in an IDA. For $2000 put into the IDA they can get $6000 for a downpayment on a home, college education or starting a small business. What a great way to help others help themselves out of poverty. Alabama Arise motto says it all “A hand UP, not a hand out”.

Boston Faith and Justice Network

Fair Trade Boston was designed to connect church teams, businesses and student groups to broader community engagement of Fair Trade. They hold events for Christians to raise consciousness about how these issues relate to their faith such as film screenings, a national webinar on fair trade and faith, and a bike ride and a benefit concert for a local safe house for survivors of human trafficking. They provide information to Boston-area residents so they are able to understand the ways workers are abused and how fair trade can address this.
The picture to the right is from BFJN director’s recent trip to India. Read Ryan’s India blog posts on their website.

Corporate Accountability International

Corporate Accountability International is “Thinking Outside the Bottle.” They have convinced schools, businesses, mayors and governors to support and create Bottled Water Free Zones. We definitely need to come together and get various corporations to stop draining watersheds and aquifers for profits. We can work together and all be “Bottle Free”!

PHP has supported CAI’s water campaign in past years and is now supporting their work to combat unhealthy food advertising. Read about their campaigns.

First Presbyterian Church St Joseph

First Presbyterian Church St. Joseph will celebrate its 27^th anniversary in June of 2012. The church provides sack lunches every Sunday with the help of many volunteers. While folks are there to pick up their food, nurses give flu and hepatitis shots, AIDS screenings and other health services. There is a “Health Express” mobile clinic that parks in front of Open Door Food Kitchen twice a month to offer blood pressure checks, diabetes sugar level sticks, hygiene kits and referral services. They also have Para Medic and a nurse practitioner on board.

And check out their Food for Kids program as well.

Idaho Community Action Network

Due to so many Americans struggling in todays time ICAN got together and came to legislature to increase Food Stamp Asset test from $2,000 to $5,000. This bill is now a law! They are also trying to reverse Medicaid cuts after $35 million was cut from the state budget. Started in 1999, ICAN has over 2,000 members statewide and they educate and mobilize people to advocate on issues of social, racial, and economic justice and to eliminate poverty in Idaho. Learn about their great food justice programs and read their new report:
Families or Corporations?
SUPER COMMITTEE CHOICE: NEED VERSUS GREED

New Report Shows Staggering Hunger and Food Insecurity Nationwide While Federal Funds Feed “Big Ag” Profits.

All this great work is made possible by the generous gifts of Presbyterians to the One Great Hour of Sharing. Thank you!

November 17, 2011

Summer Internship Opportunity!

Posted 12:55pm

Here is the scoop, including why you might apply (or send this to a young adult that you love!)

Anathoth Community Garden is a church ministry positioned in the hub of the South’s “local, organic movement” and in proximity to Duke Divinity School. This nature and location provide apprentices with the unique opportunity to learn the fundamentals of regenerative agriculture and its place within the framework of Christian reconciliation and community development–not only in the garden and surrounding community, but also from leading practitioners and scholars! The program is designed as a curriculum-based, immersion experience for 3-4 college-age or older Christians interested in developing the horticultural and theological proficiency to lead related initiatives in their own communities.

What to expect?

Our goal is to shower each apprentice with the encouragement and appropriate resources they need to grow and better minister to the communities of which they are a part. In return, our hope is that the apprentices would help us do the work to sustain this ministry by working in the garden, loving our neighbors and helping us imagine how we might better minister to Northern Orange County.

Download more details and the application forms

Please email further questions to anathothgarden@gmail.com or call Chas Edens at (336) 408-0968.

October 27, 2011

What does WINning look like?

Posted 6:12pm

More than 560 people attended (100 more than last year!) the Workers Interfaith Network (WIN) 9^th Annual Labor Day Picnic. The day was a great success with fun for the whole family. Face painting and MoonBounce for the kids, and music and entertainment for all.

WIN’s Memphis Workers’ Center is celebrating four years of seeking justice! The Workers’ Center educates and organizes low-wage workers, many whose rights have been violated. They help workers learn their rights; help them recover stolen wages and help injured workers get workers compensation.

The Workers’ Center helped Fernando Santiago, former waiter, recover $13,000 from stolen wages – the largest amount ever recovered. In his gratitude, Fernando gived $2,000 back to the Center.

The Presbyterian Hunger Program just approved a grant of $4,000 to support WIN’s ministry. You too can support WIN by sending a gift online to www.workersinterfaithnetwork.org or by mail to:

WIN, 3035 Directors Row, Bldg. B-1207, Memphis, TN. 38131

WIN is encouraging congregations everywhere to take part in “Wage Theft Sabbath” during November 19-20 to draw attention to the growing crisis. You can get your congregation involved by requesting the Wage Theft Sabbath package at (901)332-3570 or email zach@workersinterfaithnetwork.org. And you can provide ongoing support and engagement by becoming a Partnering Congregation!

September 30, 2011

Hunger Program partner highlights labor rights for World Food Day

Posted 1:03pm

World Food Day!

World Food Day happens on October 16. The US Food Sovereignty Alliance, of which the FCWA is a member, is joining with La Via Campesina and food sovereignty movements to call on people and organizations to fashion the food and farming future we need—a future of communities, regions and nations revitalized with local food, democracy, sustainability and justice.

September 27, 2011

PCUSA congregation plans for World Food Day

Posted 4:12pm

food for life with grain flying

Ashley Goff, the associate pastor at the PCUSA Church of the Pilgrims in Washington, D.C. sent us their plans for World Food Day (October 16) and the Food Week of Action.

Here is how she explained it ~~

“We are honoring the Food Week of Action starting October 9th and wanted to share our current plan. At Church of the Pilgrims, we are honoring Food Week in this way:
During our education hour prior to worship, we are having one of our members, Erin LittleStar who is active in sustainable food practices and local food/faith advocacy lead us in an hour of learning more about the food cycle and systems. This is an intergenerational event.

At the end of the hour, we are going to invite people to make 4 choices to honor the week in a practical way:

Compost for a week: We have two standing composts at Pilgrims along with worm composting. People will be invited to compost for a week and bring the compost to church the following Sunday.

SNAP Challenge: One of our members works for the Dept of Agriculture, specifically around SNAP, and recently did a SNAP Challenge with her colleagues. The challenge is to eat for a week on your amount you would receive for food stamps. (See how it works below)

Local Food: Eat one meal a day with locally grown food.

Intentional Prayer: Set an intention before each meal, snack, drink for the week. Setting an intention and honoring where the food has come from and naming if the food with be healthy or destructive to your body (and in turn to the planet).

Each session will be led by a church member who has been doing this practice and can explain the nitty-gritty.

After church, we are having a beekeeping 101 session and a farmer’s market group shopping experience. We have 5 beehives at Pilgrims which pollinate our urban garden (plus areas around us) and our beekeeper is coming to give us more information on our hives, feed the bees, etc.

Erin will be taking another group to our local farmers market to meet some farmer’s, shop for the SNAP challenge and have hands on learning around local food, seeing food as more than fuel but a faith experience.

Worship will be part of Food Week in some way. Yet to be determined!”

You can find all the resources you need for World Food Day and the Food Week of Action on the PCUSA’s Food and Faith website.

Take the SNAP Challenge:

STEP 1 – Eat on $4/day for a week, a month or longer if you so choose.

STEP 2 – Experience hunger for yourself and the difficulties faced by hungry people everywhere.

STEP 3 – Engage others by sharing your experience. We encourage you to keep a journal, post to our Facebook page, email us your story or simply share your feelings with with friends, family and coworkers.

And you? Consider getting your congregation to do something for Sunday, World Food Day ~ October 16. How about organizing a group meal? Just email us at php@pcusa.org and we will send you free placemats. No cost. Table discussion questions and other downloadable resources can be found here.

September 13, 2011

Is your harvest ample enough for low income people, too?

Posted 4:33pm

I just read that poverty in the US is at the highest level on record. Results of the US Census tell us that 46.2 million people (15.1 percent) of the residents of this country were living in poverty in 2010. This means that many of our neighbors are forced to choose between paying rent or utilities and feeding their families. And we know that the cheapest calories tend to be the worst for our health, and we are seeing the dire effects of that!

It doesn’t have to be that way, and strengthening local food economies in ways that reach low-income communities is an important step.

In this regard, I found this next fact surprising, and this reality is at the heart of the particular efforts of a group called AmpleHarvest.org:

More than 40 million American grow fruit, herbs and vegetables in home gardens – and that number is increasing.

Often, there is a glorious surplus!

AmpleHarvest.org enables people to help their neighbors in need by reaching into their backyards instead of (or as well as) their back pockets.

Learn how to connect this glorious surplus with food pantries that wish to distribute fresh, organic, local food!

August 1, 2011

Organic Schmorganic?

Posted 10:55am

How much of your food is organic? And how organic is your organic food?!

Our family has made a big commitment to going organic (and local) for health reasons: us, the farmers and farmworkers, and the water, land and air. We probably eat about 80% organic these days (once you subtract the non-organic ice cream, some snacks and sometimes rice). Maybe more in the summer when we get about half of our produce from our front yard.

But if you don’t grow the food yourself, how do you know organic is really organic? This article helps answer that question. “Is your organic food really organic: Imported foods found with unacceptable pesticides levels“

The other issue is that we’ve so polluted our environment – air, water and soil – that even organic food has pesticides and toxins in it. You can’t escape it because mercury, pesticides and other toxins float in the air and land on the soil and crops. From a 2002 NY Times article – “The first detailed scientific analysis of organic fruits and vegetables, published today, shows that they contain a third as many pesticide residues as conventionally grown foods.”
Read the article here.

The take away message is that organic food does indeed have less pesticides. And pesticide cocktails may be very dangerous to our health in the long run. Most people in the US who have done tissue tests find that they have dozens of pesticides, heavy metals and other toxins in the bodies. Fun, eh?!

Organic certification does indeed usually mean it is organic. Conventional, non-organic will generally have more pesticides on them. So, generally, eating organic is a good thing because it also means that the food has not been genetically modified. The health effects of GMOs are still unknown, but new evidence is surfacing that is very scary, particularly the effects on our intestines.

I would recommend the Environmental Working Group’s guides. This is carefully researched. And they have a Dirty Dozen list, which may help you prioritize the foods you definitely want to buy organic.

Genetically Modified Bonus News Items:

ROUNDUP READY CROPS KILLING HABITAT OF MONARCH BUTTERFLIES
GM Roundup Ready soy and corn monocultures in the Midwestern US are killing off the habitat of monarch butterflies, says a new study. The study shows a drop over the last 17 years of the area occupied by monarchs in central Mexico, where many of them spend the winter. The study attributes the decrease partly to the loss of milkweed, on which monarchs lay their eggs, from use of Roundup Ready crops. Other causes, it says, are the loss of milkweed to land development, illegal logging in Mexico, and severe weather. “It [glyphosate] kills everything,” said Lincoln P. Brower, an entomologist at Sweet Briar College who is also an author of the paper. “It’s like absolute Armageddon for biodiversity over a huge area.”
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=13316
The study: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1752-4598.2011.00142.x/abstract

GM SALMON STUDY REVEALS DANGER OF ESCAPE
If GM salmon were to escape from captivity they could succeed in breeding and passing their genes into the wild, Canadian researchers have found. To measure the ability of GM males to complete with wild males during the reproductive season, the team monitored breeding behaviour in a naturalised laboratory setting. “While the transgenic males displayed reduced breeding performance relative to their non-transgenic rivals they still demonstrated the ability to successfully participate in natural spawning events and thus have the potential to contribute modified genes to wild populations,” said lead author Darek Moreau from the Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=13321

July 22, 2011

Fans of Farm Workers and NFWM

Posted 3:51pm

“WE CELEBRATE the 40 years of ministry of the National Farm Worker Ministry!”

Dominique holding 35 pound bucket of tomatoes

I am Dominique Aulisio. Through volunteering with NFWM and starting a Youth and Young Adult Network chapter in Orlando, I have had the opportunity to get to know farm workers and work hand in hand with them to fight the injustice they face.

YAYAs learn about hope, share in each others’ cultures, and learn the organizing skills we need to impact our world. As a young person, working with NFWM as an ally to farm workers has given me confidence in our power to change the systems that oppress farm workers and keep our communities divided. NFWM/YAYA is unique and vital to the farm worker movement and to the broader fight for social justice. I am grateful to have the continued opportunity to work alongside NFWM in the farm worker movement.

Olga speaking at a public rally I am Olgha Sierra Sandman. I came from Mexico to enter a college for women in training for missionary work hoping to be sent to Africa. That changed when I had the opportunity to work for two summers for the National Migrant Ministry. After my marriage to Rev. Bob Sandman, we continued in Migrant Ministry.

In May 1971, I attended the first meeting of the National Farm Worker Ministry Board in La Paz, CA. I was fortunate to be a part of the evolving of the Migrant Ministry into the National Farm Worker Ministry. NFWM opened the door widely and I entered. The farm workers also opened their arms and embraced me, both giving me many opportunities to work side by side.

Forty years later, I reflect in gratitude and praise God, for giving me this life-time opportunity to be part of a movement of justice, for learning from the farm workers about self-determination and sacrifice, about fighting for dignity, and respect and for bringing to our tables the food that sustains life.

Written in my heart are Cesar Chavez’s words of wisdom: “When you work for justice, you can’t afford being a sprinter, you must be a long distance runner.” As I approach the finishing line, I’m ready to pass the baton on to all future runners for justice who will, as I have, stay the course and support the National Farm Worker Ministry and its courageous stand to be faithful to the struggle of the farm workers.

Maria in a field of grapes I am Maria Vidal. Years ago, I worked in the fields picking apricots and peaches near Stockton, California. When I learned that 15 farm workers had died from heat stress in California’s fields since 2005, I was motivated to act.

Now I am a volunteer with the National Farm Worker Ministry’s Support Group, LIVE – Luces y Voces de Esperanza. I and my fellow supporters seek ways that our people can be valued for their work. Above all, we bring farm workers hope that their dignity as persons will be respected. We let them know that they are not alone. It is a privilege to give my time and be in solidarity with the National Farm Worker Ministry, because NFWM works to see to it that farm workers have a voice.

And you can celebrate and contribute to the work of NFWM

July 21, 2011

90 Years of Solidarity, 40 Years of the National Farm Worker Ministry

Posted 3:30pm

The National Farm Worker Ministry — which Presbyterians and the Hunger Program have been engaged with for decades — celebrates 40 years of solidarity and accompaniment with farm workers. Board chair Felix Garza and director Virginia Nesmith give some background and an invitation to support this work. Tomorrow, we’ll hear from Olga, Dominique and Maria about why they love NFWM.

***********

More than 90 years ago, state migrant ministries began providing services to farm workers. Decades later, those ministry leaders were ready when farm workers began organizing in the fields and called on religious groups to accompany them. In 1971, they founded NFWM as a national organization to mobilize faith community members in the farm worker struggle for justice.

NFWM Marches at Reynolds Tobacco

For 40 years, we have been privileged, along with you, to accompany farm workers in the fields and in the supermarkets, in labor camps and corporate offices, on the streets and in the halls of Congress.

You have helped farm workers win better wages and working conditions and the right to enforce those through union representation; the recognition from many food service companies that we all share in the responsibility to improve the conditions of those who pick our produce; and new laws such as those requiring mattresses in labor camps.

Yet we grieve for the many workers who continue to be exploited by our broken system, risking their health and their lives to put food on our table. With you, we remain steadfast to transforming the agriculture industry so that:

– No farm worker has to sleep 12 people to a trailer that has no ventilation.
– No farm worker dies from working in 100 degree heat without water or shade breaks.
– No farm worker suffers the horrible effects of being sprayed with toxic pesticides.
– No farm worker is cheated, paid for 48 sacks of oranges when they picked 53.
– No farm worker has to be silent in the face of abuse or risk being fired or deported.

We commit to saying “Yes” when farm workers ask for our help. We commit to engaging a new generation in this struggle. We commit to providing you with education and action opportunities so that together, we reach the day when each meal we sit down to is a meal we can eat with a clear conscience.

In celebration of 40 years of national work, our goal is to raise $40,000 in additional income. We recently learned about an exciting opportunity to have $5,000 of this appeal matched dollor-for-dollar by a new granting source. That means your anniversary gift is doubled – your $50 gift becomes $100 or your $100 gift becomes $200. Each donor to our anniversary campaign will receive an NFWM magnet in appreciation!

Click here to contribute online using our new secure donation system!

In Solidarity,
Felix Garza, President
Virgnia Nesmith, Executive Director

June 29, 2011

Blurring the Line

Posted 10:17am

“I had grown two things, a cup of grass seed in kindergarten and kohlrabi in third grade, before I moved to Florida to join Nathan Ballentine with his business of helping people grow their own food and share it,” says Lindsay Popper, a graduate of Warren Wilson College along with Nathan who is building relationships and building gardens all over Tallahassee!

Nathan is one of the Presbyterian Hunger Program’s 16 Food Justice Fellows. While most the Food Justice Fellows are digging in the dirt, I’m guessing Nathan’s hands are stained brown.

Nathan has been food gardening since eight when his mother set him on a garden as a homeschooling project. He grew up in the PC(USA) and has been accused of being a “Presby-geek.” Currently, Nathan runs Tallahassee Food Gardens, his own business and social enterprise established “to encourage and assist folks to raise food for self and neighbor.” They earn income by means of raised bed installs, planting fruit trees, and just recently, an affluent neighborhood has hired Nathan to facilitate their community garden development. Having studied community organizing at Warren Wilson College, he spends 1-3 days a week supporting community gardens in neighborhoods, at food pantries, churches, and schools.

Read Lindsay’s story about Nathan and what’s growing in Tallahassee — “Academics, work and service: Blurring the Lines“