Foundation Journal

A group of 30 people from Harvesters and area food agencies traveled to Jefferson City for Harvesters’ Advocacy Day. The group met up with other food bank workers and agencies from Missouri food banks. We started with a short meeting hearing from Rep. Bob Nance, a Republican author of legislation to increase supplemental food stamp assistance for elderly. Bob Nance encouraged workers in food banks to continue serving a vital community need – providing emergency food aid. Brian Colby with the Missouri Health Advocacy Alliance addressed the food bank group. He emphasized that food banks are on the front line of the economic downturn by focusing on the safety net of food assistance. He noted that food stamps provide an economic benefit to local communities by injecting funds into people’s hands to purchase food. The group heard from Jan with the Ozarks Food Bank and Karen Haren with Harvesters. After the brief gathering, individuals were invited to visit with legislators. I had four

“Lost your job” and “you make too much money for social security.” These are some of the comments I heard over the cubicle wall as Julie interviewed a client for the Hunger in America study today at the Samaritan Center in Clinton, Missouri. A woman was elaborating on her situation during some of the questions about her household’s income, food, and health condition. The woman was frustrated with her situation “trying to get disability insurance and wasted a lot of time and money in Warrensburg and Kansas City.” The building is an old single story building in the older part of Clinton with patterned-covered wallboard and a drop ceiling. Clients are able to visit the pantry once a month. They come in and schedule the next month’s visit, then go through the pantry. Conducting interviews involves a fair amount of waiting as clients come through for food. A random sample selects every fourth client today based on the estimate of the number of people seeking food. The goal is to get 10-

The International Food Aid Conference took place on April 6, 2009 in Kansas City, Missouri. This was truly a unique opportunity to attend a conference with 30 countries represented without leaving my hometown. On the first day of the conference, I attended the "United Nations Association Symposium on Food Security." The symposium was organized by the Greater Kansas City United Nations Association and was free and open to the public. The symposium was organized by the KC chapter of United Nations Organization. It’s an opportunity for advocacy as Jay Sjerven, president of the organization, highlighted the profile of food prices and the impact on poor people. There were four industry experts on the panel. Tony Hall, former US congressman from Dayton, Ohio , US Ambassador to the UN, and author of Changing the Face of Hunger (http://www.amazon.com/Changing-Face-Hunger-Conservatives-Republicans/dp/0849918693/ref=ed_oe_p), explained how a 1984 trip to Ethiopia transformed his p