A nourishing meal is a great antidote to a hungry stomach. And when the stomach is full and the mind calmer, the question we need to ask is: why are people hungry? It’s surely not the lack of food. We have enough food in this world to feed everyone well. In fact, 40% of our edible food end up in our landfill. Recovering even part of that is enough to feed everyone facing hunger. We have a system where we have the food, we have people who need food, but we aren’t able to put two and two together. It is not a problem we could not solve if we really wanted to.
Unfortunately a lot of it boils down to our economic system, food policies, and political will to fix the broken system. Nationwide thousands of food banks, meal programs, soup kitchens are working hard every day to feed people in need. HIP is part of that movement. That’s great work and more is needed. However, we also need to be clear that just feeding people will never end hunger. Hunger is not just an issue of not getting enough food, it has serious repercussions for our health care system, education, jobs, and economy, to name just a few. While HIP continues to grow it’s direct service programs, we also actively engage in anti-hunger advocacy to change the system to really end hunger in this country, not just now, but for future generations. We’ll continue to push for policies that put the underserved children and families at the forefront making sure everyone has a chance to reach their full potential.
