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Editor’s note: Read the results of the sisters’ research in the “Facing Hunger in America” report. For a comprehensive look at how United Methodists are addressing the issues of hunger and social justice, go to www.umc.org/hunger.
By Linda Bloom*
7:00 A.M. July 1, 2013 | NEW YORK (UMNS)
“Canstruction Asheville,” held annually in North Carolina, is a
nonprofit event where teams construct huge sculptures out of canned
goods. All canned food is then donated to local food banks in the
community.
Web-only photos courtesy of Facing Hunger in America.
Betsy Comstock and Carolyn Pesheck wanted to see for themselves how people are responding to the issue of hunger in America.
The two sisters, both active United Methodists, bought a used
minivan and embarked on a series of road trips between 2009 and 2012
that took them to hunger-related programs in all 50 states and the
District of Columbia.
They drove 38,893 miles and spent 254 nights in campgrounds, motels
or the homes of family and friends. Comstock covered the gas, Pesheck
paid for lodging and they took turns buying groceries. “It just became
our way of life for a few years,” Comstock explained.
The result is “Facing Hunger in America”
a report that summarizes the issues and best practices of the 93
programs visited. They also kept an online diary of their travels in a Facing Hunger in America blog.
A range of actions are needed to reduce U.S. poverty, the sisters
point out in their report. Charitable or federal safety nets will not
disappear, but will shrink “as the need shrinks, so that they focus on
those who, because of mental, physical, or emergency constraints,
cannot adequately provide for themselves and their families.
“We envision an expansion of the healthy food movement in a way that
inclusively makes local healthy food available to all by deliberately
building healthy communities,” they write. “We are strong proponents of
local farms, improving access to fresh produce, regional policies to
promote access to healthy food, and improving knowledge about cooking
and nutrition.”
In their travels, the sisters found plenty of examples of how the emphasis on healthy can mean less hunger.
“Called to look at this”
Betsy Comstock and Carolyn Pesheck prepare salad for a Manna Meal in
Charleston, W. Va., on Oct. 11, 2010. Manna Meals serves breakfast and
lunch 365 days of the year.
Born only a year apart — Comstock is 65 and Pesheck is 64 — the
middle two of the four Comstock daughters from Duluth, Minn., have
remained good friends through adulthood.
“The idea of doing some travel together” was always part of their
retirement plan, said Pesheck, who worked for Pfizer as a research
scientist for 20 years and is a member of Chapel Hill United Methodist
Church in Portage, Mich.
When the sisters pondered the idea of pursuing a project together,
“we kept being brought back to hunger as a topic we should study, like
we were being called to look at this,” she said.
“We kept being mystified by the problem of hunger in this country,”
added Comstock, who had a 30-year career as a psychologist and
usability researcher and is a member of St. Matthew’s United Methodist
Church in Acton, Mass.
“We didn’t either of us know anything about it when we started.
Somehow the statistics we were reading didn’t put enough of a face on
it for us.”
For this project, they focused less on statistics and more on experience and information gathered from interviews.
“Every site was our favorite site while we were there,” Comstock
said. “Every site we went to, we met people who were compassionate,
dedicated, and working their tails off on behalf of hungry people in
this country.”
Big not always better
The sisters learned that small organizations, or even individuals,
can be just as effective as larger ones when it comes to feeding the
hungry. On Bainbridge Island near Seattle,
for example, a former commercial fisherman has found a way to secure
donations from the seafood industry to the food banks network through
his “SeaShare” program.
“It’s an incredible example of leverage,” Comstock explained. “It’s one and a half people who manage this whole thing.”
Some projects went beyond the traditional soup kitchen or food pantry. Pesheck enjoyed attending a “Canstruction” contest where middle and high school students learned facts about hunger while building sculptures out of canned food and competing for awards.
“People vote by bringing in (additional) cans and putting them in
barrels at the various constructions,” she explained. “All of the food
is then donated to a local food pantry or food bank.”
Mobile programs in Chicago and Washington take food to those
reluctant to go to homeless shelters, then look for other opportunities
to help. “In both of those examples, they send social workers along
with the soup truck.” Comstock noted. “It’s never just about food, in
any of these places.”
Even a “Meals on Wheels” program, such as the one they visited in
South Carolina, provides more than just nutrition. The driver making
the delivery provides “a check” on the person receiving the meal,
Pesheck noted, and reports back if there seems to be a problem,
highlighting the importance of human contact for these programs.
In Hawaii, the one destination they could not reach by van, the
sisters were impressed by the evolving hunger ministry of Uti Langi, a
member of First United Methodist Church in Honolulu.
“He’s our example of somebody who moves fluidly up and down the
continuum of mercy work to advocacy work,” Comstock explained.
Langi, executive director of H-5 ministry, adapts to changing needs.
He started by giving out blankets and then sandwiches before
convincing the State of Hawaii to build a homeless shelter. Then he adapted old tour buses into temporary shelters and has built a small community around the buses. “Now, he’s organizing these folks to do jobs for the city,” she said.
*Bloom is a United Methodist News Service multimedia reporter based in New York. Follow her at http://twitter.com/umcscribe.
News media contact: Linda Bloom, New York, (646) 369-3759 or newsdesk@umcom.org.