Food was on the agenda for three events I attended last week, but I came away with a sense of frustration because they approached the question from such different perspectives, and the solutions offered seemed vague and slippery. It's hard to see how we can move forward in this jumble of debates and narratives.
Let's start at the White House, where the monthly meeting run by the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, called "Compassion in Action", focused on hunger and food. About 80 people, billed as coming from many different kinds of organizations, even political persuasions, sat in the 4th floor theater of the Old Executive Office Building. These meetings tend to be celebratory --both of the work of faith organizations and the support the Bush administration gives them -- so problems and complex issues rarely make it onto the agenda.
The spotlight was on the work of organizations that help people who are hurting directly - Catholic Charities, Planet Aid, World Vision and others. And there is reason to honor them; these organizations are truly on the front lines in fighting poverty.
But the feel-good aura could not mask the concern about current trends. The statistics on hungry people are horrendous - almost 900 million worldwide, and about 36 million in our own prosperous society. Food stamps in the U.S. don't reach many who need them, including children, and the organizations are worried that the economic downturn will push more and more people over the poverty line. The Farm Bill (which includes food aid programs) is still in limbo in Congress. The impact of rising food prices on poor families in Africa and Asia is barely known but is not hard to imagine.
A very different meeting did not set out to celebrate anyone; instead, it surfaced a raft of long-standing arguments that bedevil discussions about hunger. The Geneva-based Christian Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance came to challenge the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, arguing that policies these international organizations press on governments hurt small farmers when they try to sell their products. But EAA's arguments fell rather flat because they turned essentially on stifling free trade, hardly a plausible proposition for organizations founded in good measure to promote the global exchange of goods.
Then the inspiring former president of Ireland, Mary Robinson, spoke at Georgetown University about human rights and citizen mobilization. She agreed that rising food prices exacerbate the challenges of meeting the "right to food" that has long been accepted in principle at the international level. She seemed equally frustrated about taking that noble pledge to the level of action.
One White House speaker was Pastor Joe Wingo, from Angel Food Ministries, who said he was inspired by what his father told him long ago - that the poor shall always be with us. But that ancient wisdom is outdated - today we know we can end poverty and hunger. But it will take more than speeches and, sadly, more than saints at work to do so. It is, as Catholic Charities says in their mission statement, about "providing help, creating hope". We need a revival of the kind of energy and determination that inspired the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, signed 60 years ago, to make sure that no child today goes to bed hungry.
