Baptist News Global
Sections
  • News
  • Analysis
  • Opinion
  • Curated
  • Storytelling
    • Faith & Justice >
      • Charleston: Metanoia with Bill Stanfield
      • Charlotte: QC Family Tree with Greg and Helms Jarrell
      • Little Rock: Judge Wendell Griffen
      • North Carolina: Conetoe
    • Welcoming the Stranger >
      • Lost Boys of Sudan: St. John’s Baptist Charlotte
      • Awakening to Immigrant Justice: Myers Park Baptist Church
      • Hospitality on the corner: Gaston Christian Center
    • Signature Ministries >
      • Jake Hall: Gospel Gothic, Music and Radio
    • Singing Our Faith >
      • Hymns for a Lifetime: Ken Wilson and Knollwood Baptist Church
      • Norfolk Street Choir
    • Resilient Rural America >
      • Alabama: Perry County
      • Texas: Hidalgo County
      • Arkansas Delta
      • Southeast Kentucky
  • More
    • Contact
    • About
    • Donate
    • Planned Giving
    • Letters to the Editor
    • Advertising
    • Ministry Jobs and More
    • Transitions
    • Subscribe
    • Submissions and Permissions
Support independent, faith-based journalism. Donate
Search Search this site

Moving beyond hope to confidence in fight against hunger

NewsKen Camp  |  October 12, 2015

By Ken Camp

In spite of some discouraging trends, the problem of hunger in the United States — particularly among children — can be solved, the leader of the national “No Kid Hungry” movement told participants at the Together at the Table Hunger and Poverty Summit at Baylor University.

“Lives really are at stake — the lives of kids, families and communities,” said Billy Shore, founder and chief executive officer of Share Our Strength. 

For the third consecutive year, the number of Americans living below the poverty level hovered around 45 million, Shore said. Children comprise about half of all Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program recipients, he added.

“For the first time, a majority of public school students — 51 percent — live below the poverty line,” said Shore, who serves on the National Commission on Hunger along with Jeremy Everett, founding director of the Texas Hunger Initiative, the summit’s organizer.

Poverty leaves a lasting developmental impact on children, Shore said. MRI studies reveal children in families with an annual income of $25,000 or less have 6 percent less brain surface than children from families whose annual income is $150,000 or greater.

So, he said, more affluent families not only have bigger homes and cars, but also “their kids have bigger brains,” he said.

‘A solvable problem’

“The good news is that the issue of hunger in America is a solvable problem,” Shore insisted. Unlike some parts of the globe — where famine, war and drought produce hunger — in the United States, the solution rests in connecting children in poverty to available programs and services.

Hunger3

Anti-hunger activists need to focus on “knocking down the barriers” between eligible children and programs that could benefit them, he said. 

“Some children and families are not only vulnerable, but also so economically and politically marginalized that they are voiceless,” Shore said. People of faith need to join with other citizens of good will in providing a voice for poor children and their families.

Shore encouraged other hunger-fighting groups to learn from Share Our Strength’s experience in recent years. 

He encouraged them to set big goals, seek to increase their organizational capacity to serve, be accountable to supporters by measuring and communicating progress, strive to be the best and focus on connecting hunger issues to matters already part of the national conversation — issues such as health care, education and economic growth.

“We have the opportunity to lift our voices and not let politics, bureaucracy or indifference stand between a hungry child and a healthy meal,” Shore said. 

Poverty, food insecurity related

Poverty and food insecurity are closely related but not synonymous, economist Craig Gundersen and public health specialist Joe Sharkey said. 

Not all poor people are food insecure, and not all food-insecure households are below the federal poverty level, they noted, during a panel discussion on the economics of hunger and poverty during the hunger and poverty summit.

“Most families in the colonias [along the United States/Mexico border] live at 50 percent or even at 25 percent of the federal poverty level, but they have figured out strategies to cope,” said Sharkey, a professor in the department of health promotion and community health services at Texas A&M University.

But the coping strategies poor people use to maintain some level of food security vary from creating innovative entrepreneurial micro-businesses to giving up other necessities to buy food, he noted.

Gundersen, a professor in the department of agricultural and consumer economics at the University of Illinois, took issue with the notion that income inequality always relates directly to hunger.

Talking about inequality is a ‘distraction’

“Inequality and poverty are dramatically different things,” he said. “Talking about inequality is a distraction. If the goal is to help poor people and reduce food insecurity, talk about poverty. Inequality is not germane to the topic.”

Gundersen also disputed the assertion that raising the minimum wage will help the poor. Raising the minimum wage would benefit a relatively small percentage of poor people, likely would raise the price of food and arguably could have a negative impact on jobs, he asserted. 

Instead, he recommended expanding earned income tax credits to benefit people at or near the poverty level. He also lauded SNAP as “the best safety net we have in the United States.”

Sharkey emphasized the importance of developing not just public/private partnerships to address hunger, but public/private/community-based partnerships.

“The priority population has to be part of the solution,” he said.

Pointing to his research in the unincorporated colonias along the Rio Grande, he emphasized solutions must be tailored to the context of the community. 

Tags:Baylor UniversitySocial Issueshunger
Avatar
More by
Ken Camp
  • Get BNG headlines in your inbox

  • Featured

    • Next BNG free webinar will survey global religious issues and human rights

      News

    • ‘Postcards from Babylon’ documentary tells a better story

      Analysis

    • Christian symbols and sedition at the Capitol: The church has work to do

      Opinion

    • What should pastors do if their members helped incite the Capitol riots?

      Analysis


    Curated

    • Joanne Rogers, widow of ‘Mr. Rogers,’ dead at age 92

      Joanne Rogers, widow of ‘Mr. Rogers,’ dead at age 92

      January 15, 2021
    • Israel hopes to vaccinate Holocaust survivors to save and repay ‘treasured’ population

      Israel hopes to vaccinate Holocaust survivors to save and repay ‘treasured’ population

      January 15, 2021
    • Conspiracy theories and the ‘American Madness’ that gripped the Capitol

      Conspiracy theories and the ‘American Madness’ that gripped the Capitol

      January 15, 2021
    • Anti-Semitism seen in Capitol insurrection raises alarms

      Anti-Semitism seen in Capitol insurrection raises alarms

      January 14, 2021
    Read Next:

    Seminarian, CBF and Georgia church find fellowship together

    NewsJeff Brumley

    More Articles

    • All
    • News
    • Opinion
    • Curated
    • In New York City, serving the homeless offered a clue for how to serve trauma victims during the pandemic

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • At Central Seminary, Durso inauguration moves to virtual platform

      NewsBNG staff

    • 10 prayers for 2021 (if we survive January)

      OpinionErich Bridges

    • Why ‘moderate’ churches fear telling it like it is

      OpinionEric Minton

    • Kentucky seminary receives Baugh Foundation grant to start Institute for Black Church Studies

      NewsPat Cole

    • American Protestants less open to sermons on race in 2020, survey finds

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • 3 current trends youth leaders need to know

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • 4 things you can do to counter the millions of Americans who are fully radicalized

      OpinionCorey Fields

    • Christian symbols and sedition at the Capitol: The church has work to do

      OpinionRhonda Abbott Blevins

    • ‘Postcards from Babylon’ documentary tells a better story

      AnalysisRick Pidcock

    • Give yourself some grace during the pandemic

      OpinionBrett Younger

    • What should pastors do if their members helped incite the Capitol riots?

      AnalysisAndrew Gardner

    • Seminarian, CBF and Georgia church find fellowship together

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Understanding the trauma and finding hope after the siege of the nation’s Capitol

      OpinionKathy Manis Findley

    • New effort to repeal federal death penalty is beginning

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Why I long for the church of my youth

      OpinionRichard T. Hughes

    • ‘He being dead, yet speaketh’

      OpinionHarold Ivan Smith

    • Barna advice to pastors: Talk honestly about emotions and relationships

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Toxic masculinity, 24-hour news and complacency fed the Jan. 6 riots

      OpinionJohn Jay Alvaro

    • Trump administration pushes evangelical agenda through last-minute actions

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Trump’s parting gift echos his immigration policies toward Africa

      NewsAnthony Akaeze

    • A lesson from 19th century North Carolina: Lost cause, lost opportunity

      OpinionGreg Jarrell

    • Ministry jobs and more

      NewsBarbara Francis

    • Dear white Christians, are you done praying yet?

      OpinionNatasha Nedrick

    • SBC seminary presidents meet with Black pastors but don’t change position on Critical Race Theory

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • In New York City, serving the homeless offered a clue for how to serve trauma victims during the pandemic

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • At Central Seminary, Durso inauguration moves to virtual platform

      NewsBNG staff

    • Kentucky seminary receives Baugh Foundation grant to start Institute for Black Church Studies

      NewsPat Cole

    • American Protestants less open to sermons on race in 2020, survey finds

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • 3 current trends youth leaders need to know

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Seminarian, CBF and Georgia church find fellowship together

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • New effort to repeal federal death penalty is beginning

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Barna advice to pastors: Talk honestly about emotions and relationships

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Trump administration pushes evangelical agenda through last-minute actions

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Trump’s parting gift echos his immigration policies toward Africa

      NewsAnthony Akaeze

    • Ministry jobs and more

      NewsBarbara Francis

    • SBC seminary presidents meet with Black pastors but don’t change position on Critical Race Theory

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Q&A with Michael McMahon of the Hymn Society of North America

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Western Recorder, second oldest Baptist paper in America, to cease publication

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Letter to the Editor: No need to ‘call me back’ to my faith after supporting Trump

      NewsBNG staff

    • Clergy advocate to repeal death penalty in Virginia

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Denominational leaders denounce Capitol violence while evangelicals offer mixed responses

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • D.C. church hangs huge Black Lives Matter banners in view of Trump rally

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Pastors respond to unbelievable events at Capitol on Epiphany 2021

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Transitions for the week of 1-8-21

      NewsBarbara Francis

    • Donors keep Judson College open for spring semester

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • 25 years ago this week, five Baptist churches were booted for affirming gay members

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Ministry jobs and more

      NewsBarbara Francis

    • Next BNG free webinar will survey global religious issues and human rights

      NewsBNG staff

    • With in-person disaster relief work curtailed due to COVID, Louisiana volunteers came up with a new idea

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • 10 prayers for 2021 (if we survive January)

      OpinionErich Bridges

    • Why ‘moderate’ churches fear telling it like it is

      OpinionEric Minton

    • 4 things you can do to counter the millions of Americans who are fully radicalized

      OpinionCorey Fields

    • Christian symbols and sedition at the Capitol: The church has work to do

      OpinionRhonda Abbott Blevins

    • Give yourself some grace during the pandemic

      OpinionBrett Younger

    • Understanding the trauma and finding hope after the siege of the nation’s Capitol

      OpinionKathy Manis Findley

    • Why I long for the church of my youth

      OpinionRichard T. Hughes

    • ‘He being dead, yet speaketh’

      OpinionHarold Ivan Smith

    • Toxic masculinity, 24-hour news and complacency fed the Jan. 6 riots

      OpinionJohn Jay Alvaro

    • A lesson from 19th century North Carolina: Lost cause, lost opportunity

      OpinionGreg Jarrell

    • Dear white Christians, are you done praying yet?

      OpinionNatasha Nedrick

    • I’ve been accused of sowing hate

      OpinionKim Brewer

    • It’s past time to admit the hard truths behind the Capitol riots

      OpinionWendell Griffen

    • Truth Decay: Truth is interpersonal and covenantal

      OpinionDavid Gushee, Senior Columnist

    • Why resisting gaslighting in the wake of sedition is self-care

      OpinionJonathan Davis

    • Four tools the church has to recover those who followed Trump’s siren song

      OpinionMichael Chancellor

    • Let’s make America great again

      OpinionTerry Austin

    • How to become the hope of 2021

      OpinionAmber Cantorna

    • Broken churches, broken nation: Will evangelicals ‘recalculate’ or rebel?    

      OpinionBill Leonard, Senior Columnist

    • We need to call Trump Christians back to the faith they left

      OpinionSusan M. Shaw, Senior Columnist

    • Remember that Epiphany ends with Herod’s terror

      OpinionAlyssa Aldape

    • We knew there would be a reckoning for religious leaders enabling Trumpism, we just didn’t know it would be today

      OpinionMark Wingfield

    • Do you see Jesus as a power broker or a liberator?

      OpinionSid Smith III

    • On Epiphany, let us resolve to go on

      OpinionPaul Baxley

    • On Epiphany, tend the light of Christ with truth and love

      OpinionGeorge Mason

    • Joanne Rogers, widow of ‘Mr. Rogers,’ dead at age 92

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Israel hopes to vaccinate Holocaust survivors to save and repay ‘treasured’ population

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Conspiracy theories and the ‘American Madness’ that gripped the Capitol

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Anti-Semitism seen in Capitol insurrection raises alarms

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Most Evangelical Trump Voters Didn’t Turn on Mike Pence

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • What four strangers of different faiths learned while living together during a pandemic

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • In waning days of Trump presidency, Department of Health and Human Services undercuts religious liberty protections in new final rule

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • How House chaplain calmed tense hours in besieged Capitol with prayers for ‘God’s covering’

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Supreme Court wrestles with Georgia college free speech case

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • How self-proclaimed ‘prophets’ from a growing Christian movement provided religious motivation for the Jan. 6 events at the US Capitol

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • For insurrectionists, a violent faith brewed from nationalism, conspiracies and Jesus

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Warnock condemns Capitol rioters in post-election sermon

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • A scholar of American anti-Semitism explains the hate symbols present during the US Capitol riot

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • SBC leader Russell Moore to Trump: Time to leave. ‘People are dead’

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Catholic leaders, progressive and conservative, condemn the violence at the Capitol

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Pro-Trump prayer meeting filled with calls for a ‘miracle’

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • With his victory, Raphael Warnock becomes a member of a select club – pastor politician

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Faith groups among those calling for Trump’s impeachment after US Capitol occupation

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Warnock, Biden wins give twin thrills to religious liberals

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • As chaos hits Capitol, two forms of faith on display

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Warnock, pastor and politician, has role models who did both

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Sharpton: Firing officer who killed Andre Hill is not enough

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • As ‘Jericho Marchers’ descend on Washington, local faith leaders brace for attacks

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • African spirituality offers Black believers ‘decolonized’ Christianity

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Warnock, pastor and politician, has role models who did both

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    Conversations that Matter.

    © 2021 Baptist News Global. All rights reserved.

    Want to share a story? We hope you will! Read our republishing, terms of use and privacy policies here.

    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Instagram
    • LinkedIn
    • RSS