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December 20, 2002/Tevet 15 5763, Vol. 55, No. 17
Filling children's bellies
FLORENCE ECKSTEIN
Publisher
Food. It's an obsession fraught with both pleasure and pain - pleasure contemplating, selecting and consuming what we crave most from a seemingly limitless array of enticing colors, fragrant aromas and delectable tastes, and pain at the realization that every forkful comes laden with calories that, consumed uncontrolled, wreak havoc on our health and appearance.
We consume what we need and more, and toss in the garbage what's left on our plates and what's sat too long in our refrigerators. And then we rush to the grocery store to restock.
But while most of us know the discomfort of a belly overladen with food, few of us know the other extreme - the hollow ache of having too little to eat. It's hard for most privileged Americans to grasp that since pre-biblical times, people have endured recurrent famine, and that chronic food shortages plague many nations today. Millions of Americans, wrestling with unemployment, underemployment and limited resources, can't adequately feed their families.
All age and ethnic groups are affected. In Arizona, 51 percent of the poor are children and seniors; 90 percent U.S. citizens; 70 percent white, 37 percent Hispanic; 11 percent Native American, 5 percent black. Twenty-three percent of Arizona children live in poverty, according to Kids Count.
Federal data reveal that from 1997-1999, 11.5 percent of Arizonans experienced what bureaucrats call "food insecurity" - having too little to eat and often not knowing where the next meal is coming from. In May, 387,000 Arizonans got food stamps; another 312,000 living in poverty were not getting food stamps. Some depend on charity dining rooms for sustenance. Each day, more than 120,000 Arizona children eat free or reduced-price, government-subsidized breakfasts at school.
Since 1985, MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger, has granted more than $27 million to agencies feeding the hungry of all faiths and backgrounds. MAZON ("food" in Hebrew) encourages Jews to send a check representing 3 percent of the cost of a simcha (celebration) to be distributed to hunger-fighting programs. Arizona agencies have received $270,000 in MAZON grant money. Our newspaper contributes advertising space to MAZON to encourage donations from our readers.
"Our table is brimming. But some go hungry," a new American Jewish Committee Thanksgiving reader asserts. Each of us can help to change that by putting down our forks, taking up our pens and writing checks to agencies whose mission is to fill empty bellies with nourishing, sustaining food.
Consider these: St. Mary's Food Bank, 2831 N. 31st Ave., Phoenix 85009; Westside Food Bank, P.O. Box 80852, Sun City 85060; St. Vincent de Paul, 420 W. Watkins, Phoenix 85003; The Association of Arizona Food Banks, 2100 N. Central Ave., Suite 230, Phoenix 85004; and MAZON, 1990 S. Bundy Drive, Suite 260, Los Angeles, CA 90025.
Contact the writer at flo_eckstein@jewishaz.com.
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