Student Reflection: Serving the evening meal at the Siena Francis House

    Last Monday, two Operation Others core team members, Mr. Kinney, and I, went to the Siena Francis House to serve dinner. It was my first time serving there. The first thing that I noticed was how friendly everyone was. The people sitting outside – who were obviously the ones who would be receiving my services that night – all said “hello,” and a man leaving held the door for me while I walked in. Since everything was new to me I had to ask the people at the front desk where I was needed. They all smiled at me (5 smiling faces was very reassuring) and one of them walked me back to the kitchen where I my escort introduced me to all of the kitchen staff. I was a little bit (ok maybe a lot) early, so to begin with there was not much to do. I put some hamburger buns into a container and then one of the men working in the kitchen suggested, “hey lets do it like on Sundays,” and they sent me out to put bananas on each place setting. At this point other members of my group started to show up and I began to feel more at home. I relaxed a little and began to notice more of what was going on around me.
     People began to line up outside the eating area, young and old, men and women, each waiting patiently and politely for the meal to begin. When one of the workers gave the signal, everyone came and sat down, filling nearly every seat. Probably the most touching part of the night was when they asked for a volunteer to lead the prayer before the meal. Before each group ate its meal, the staff would ask for a volunteer to lead the prayer. Before each of the four meal-times, one person in the group got up and led a prayer. During their prayer they managed to name a few things they were thankful for – that put some things into perspective for me. During and after each meal I witnessed little things that showed me how heroic these people were – like the father who went out to the common area an played with his children after the meal, or the table in the last group who saved a place for their friend who was running late so that he would not be forgotten, or every mother who passed the tray of food to their children before looking for one for themselves. In serving at the Siena Francis house I was able to interact with a group of people who I don’t normally have a chance to meet. Not only was I able to observe and learn from them, but I was also able to serve them and hopefully brighten their day a little bit.

The Siena Francis House is Nebraska's largest homeless shelter. It has been serving men, women, and children for 35 years.
The writer, Claire, is a Senior Operation Others Core Member.

Senate Appropriations Committee to make decison on international poverty assistance

This post is from the Creighton Center for Social Justice
Catholic Relief Services
As a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, your Senator will be making decisions about funding levels for poverty-focused international assistance this week. Please contact your Senators now and ask that they give priority to poverty-focused international assistance within the Foreign Operations Appropriation, and to protect poverty focused assistance from disproportionate cuts proposed by the House. Background: The Senate Appropriations Committee is scheduled to take up the Fiscal Year 2012 Foreign Operations Appropriation Bill this week. This bill will have a substantial impact on poverty-focused development and humanitarian assistance, and could help prevent disproportionate cuts proposed by the House of Representatives. Poverty-focused international assistance amounts to less than 1 percent of the U.S. budget and provides help for people suffering from severe poverty, disease and violence. Each year this small amount of assistance will: Feed 46.5 million of the world’s hungry persons. Feed 5 million schoolchildren; Prevent more than 114,000 infants from being born with HIV. Provide millions of HIV-positive people with counseling or treatment; Save 3 million lives through immunization programs. (Statistics provided by: Bread for the World, 2011) In the last decade this assistance has brought safe, reliable drinking water to more than 1.3 billion people, preventing disease. Cutting funds to poverty-focused development and humanitarian assistance will cost lives. Church Teaching: The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops supports federal programs that provide assistance for “the least of these,” (Mt 25:45). In a joint letter to the Chairman and Ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Bishop Howard Hubbard and Ken Hackett, President of Catholic Relief Services, addressed the importance of preserving and prioritizing international poverty assistance. Send an email to your senator

New Data on Food Insecurity Shows Anti-Hunger Efforts Must Continue

This is a post from the Bread for the World Blog.  

This morning, the Department of Agriculture released new data showing that 14.5 percent of American families struggled to put food on the table in 2010. The technical term for this is “food insecure.”

The good news is that while the number of food insecure families has remained basically unchanged since 2008, when the rates first spiked due to the recession, this year’s data does demonstrate some improvement. The number of families with very low food security declined between 2009 and 2010. (Very low food security means that at least one family member’s food intake was reduced, and eating patterns were disrupted because of a lack of money for food.) Food insecurity among households with children also declined slightly.

These small improvements, however, are not enough to end hunger across the country. In the world’s wealthiest nation, more than 6 million households are food insecure, and more than 16 million children still live in families that struggle to put food on the table. As so many Americans know, this data shows that the effects of a struggling economy continue to be real and severe.

With record high poverty and unemployment rates, there is no doubt that food insecurity numbers could have been much worse than what we saw this morning. Were it not for programs like SNAP (formerly food stamps), school meals, and WIC, combined with the efforts of local food banks, the needs of many hungry Americans would not have been met. Throughout the recession, more and more Americans have had to rely on the federal safety net to ensure their family gets sufficient food. Sadly, federal nutrition programs have been prime targets for cuts during the ongoing budget debates in Congress.

You can help us ensure that next year’s numbers show real progress in eliminating hunger. This September, Bread for the World has partnered with Feeding America -- the nation’s food bank network -- to continue to raise awareness about hunger and to mobilize action against it. Visit www.hungeractionmonth.org to find out how you can get involved with your local community.

Also, learn more about Bread’s efforts to protect vital federal nutrition programs by visiting www.bread.org/budget. Also, read a more detailed analysis of the food insecurity data released September 7, 2011.

Christine Meléndez Ashley is a policy analyst at Bread for the World.

Posted by Bread on September 07, 2011 in Advocacy, Hunger and the U.S. Budget,Hunger in the News, U.S. Hunger / Comments (0) / TrackBack (0)

Student reflection: "We had to decide between getting full and eating healthy"

The writer, Patrick, is an Operation Others Core Team Member and a High School Junior. 

On September 7 the Operation Others Core Team participated in a Food Stamp Challenge. We were divided into groups of three or four and were given $9 for a family of three, or $12 for a family of four (the average food stamp allotment for American families).  Each group had to use their money very carefully in order to buy enough food for the three meals. Three of the groups went to No Frills Supermarket and the other two went to Hy-Vee. The students were given roughly 30 minutes to buy the food, and it took a lot of work to stay under the budget while buying enough food for 3 or 4 people throughout the day. When we came back many of the items were very similar. Some of the most common were oatmeal, bananas, bread, milk, canned fruit, canned vegetables, and different types of cheap meat. It was a great opportunity for us to see how tough it is to stay under the food stamp budget. The one main point brought up with this budget was would you rather be hungry and eat healthily or be full and not eat healthily?

Click here for more information on the Food Stamp Challenge
Click here to learn more about Operation Others' participation in the challenge

Child Food Insecurity: The Economic Impact on our Nation

A report on research on the impact of food insecurity and hunger on child health, growth and development commissioned by Feeding America and The ConAgra Foods Foundation

http://feedingamerica.org/SiteFiles/child-economy-study.pdf