I was gonna start this one another way, but thanks to FireCrow's comment in the first entry of our blogathon from our fantastic organizer noweasels, I've hit upon a better intro. Tell 'em, FireCrow -
thank you for not using the term "food insecure" anywhere in your diary. Out of all the politically correct mumbo jumbo words they have come up with to mask the humanity and pain underlying things like hunger and starvation, I hate that one the worst. People aren't food insecure, they're friggin' hungry.
It's time we stopped sugarcoating the pain and misery of human beings with technical jargon that feels more comfortable for some to use. Hunger isn't "insecurity", it's a matter of life and death.
Let's Feed America below the fold...
Post #4 is up! Please give boatsie a rec here!!!
Here's just one of the many faces of hunger -
Greetings from Portland, Oregon. I hope you're all enjoying your weekend so far, and thank you for stopping by for this 3rd entry in this weekend's blogathan for Feeding America. Please come back a bit later for our next installment from boatsie, which will be up at 9 PM Eastern / 6 Pacific.
I don't come from much, but I've been fortunate enough to never know real hunger myself. My mother did though, and I can't ever forget the many stories of poverty and hunger I've heard from her years growing up in the city of Passaic, New Jersey. Those experiences are long in her past, but tragically they're currently a reality for all too many people right now. One in eight Americans, according to the latest surveys. That's 40 million people, just here in our country.
Many more than that all around the world...
It's time we begin to put an end to this. Nobody, anywhere, should ever have to go to bed hungry.
Whether in Camden...
Or Trenton...
Or Newark...
Or New York...
Or here in Portland...
Or anywhere else.
This solid-looking, nondescript building on West Burnside at NW 22nd Place here in Portland may not even draw your attention at first when you pass by. This is the SRO building I lived in for a while back in 2007; and although I was lucky enough to have a bit of cash in the bank left over from a relatively successful previous life, that wasn't the case for the other people I lived with there -
Like my neighbor Fred, who struggled just to make enough each week through one of the abusive temp labor agencies we worked for here just to pay the weekly rent for a nasty, insect-and-rodent infested room the size of a closet, with one shared bathroom on each floor. Be glad I didn't take any pictures of those bathrooms, or I would have posted them here...
Holding windows open with a brick or a block of wood (if we could find one) in August, because shit gets hot then.
Unlike me, however, Fred and my other neighbors also had to sometimes rely upon meals from organizations like Sisters of the Road, or from a local church or one of many other hunger relief agencies here in Portland.
Agriculturally, Oregon is one of the most bountiful places on Earth...but sadly in all too many instances that bounty doesn't make its way to the neediest amongst us here at home. My fellow Oregonians can make a difference right here -
"Solving hunger and its underlying causes is a question of the values we demonstrate as a community. It's how we respond to the needs of our neighbors--our children, our senior citizens, our disabled and our working poor.
"One person alone can't solve the problem. But together, we can eliminate hunger. I invite you and every citizen in Oregon and Clark County, Wash., to do whatever you can to fight hunger and its root causes ... because no one should be hungry."
—Rachel Bristol, executive director, Oregon Food Bank
Hunger grows fast here in Oregon -
SALEM (AP) — The Oregon Food Bank is dealing with a record level of requests for emergency food. They say the numbers are driven by the economic fallout, and they doubt the increased demand will let up any time soon.
Oregon Food Bank saw a 15 percent increase in the distribution of emergency food boxes — packages meant to feed small families for about a week at a time — during the last half of 2008 compared to that period the previous year.
Some regional food banks have seen even greater increases, the highest being a 40 percent rise in Astoria.
I've fought this before, and I'm absolutely (pardon my French) fucking furious that we're back here in this situation again...
Let's fill some empty bowls.
Hunger doesn't end at the holidays, and our food banks are currently being hit hard by the recalls resulting from the criminal actions of a certain peanut processing company right now. Can you help?
Thank you so much for anything you can do...
Every dollar makes a difference.
For every $1 you donate, Feeding America helps provide 10 pounds of food and grocery products to men, women and children facing hunger in our country.
We're also reminded by jnhobbs that sometimes it's also about filling empty backpacks -
CANNON BEACH - It may not seem likely that, in a town with a national reputation for tourist-filled beaches, luxury hotels and gourmet dining, anyone could go hungry, but in Cannon Beach being hungry is a reality for many residents.
About half of the children attending Cannon Beach Elementary School receive federally subsidized breakfasts and lunches on school days but not on weekends. In addition, at least 40 to 80 families receive food boxes from area food pantries every month, according to figures from the Clatsop Community Action Agency.
Call it coincidence or serendipity, two citizen groups have simultaneously started projects to reduce hunger. A children's "backpack" program, designed to put food in the backpacks of students who might need weekend meals, will begin Friday, and a Cannon Beach food pantry is expected to open in March.
Luxury hotels, beachfront condos, top-shelf gourmet restaurants - all in the same place where half of the kids in the local school districts qualify for free or reduced lunch.
This is not the America we should settle for. The shelves are getting near empty at our local food banks, please help if you can.
Our children are also starving...
Pooties For Food Justice command you to rec this, and fill some bowls!
Thank you!
Donate with a credit card here.
Donate other ways here.
Volunteer your time to a local food bank here.
And my friend and fellow dKosser Asinus Asinum Fricat brought up a great point in the last diary of this series. If you're overseas right now, The Food Bank of Central New York (amongst others!) accepts donations via PayPal...
Thank you for anything and everything you can do, and look for the next entry here from boatsie at 9 PM Eastern / 6 Pacific. The rest of the schedule is as follows (all times Eastern) -
Saturday, February 14
12 noon: noweasels
3 p.m.: Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse
6 p.m.: Hardhat Democrat
9 p.m.: boatsie
Overnight: JellybearDemMom
Sunday, February 15
9 a.m.: blue jersey mom
12 noon: rb137
3 p.m.: Timroff
6 p.m.: Meteor Blades
9 p.m.: srkp23