c. 1997 Religion News Service

WASHINGTON _ Leaders from a coalition of religious and secular anti-hunger groups said Tuesday (Feb. 11) that Americans have the resources but lack the will to end hunger in the United States.

And the leaders also warned that while churches and other charitable groups will do all they can to aid the poor and hungry, they cannot by themselves solve the problem.

At a news conference here, the coalition unveiled a new national campaign _”Hunger Has a Cure”_ designed to increase public awareness of hunger problems, influence public policy, and urge Americans to support hunger relief organizations.

The campaign has developed a series of print, radio and television public service ads to make the hunger issue more publicly visible.”We are not, and we cannot be, the only safety net,”said Christine Vladimiroff, president of Second Harvest, the Chicago-based national network of food banks.”The public sector must retain responsibility for hunger relief programs. (We) provide temporary, emergency hunger relief to those people that fall through the gaps in the government’s shredded safety net,”she said.

The anti-hunger coalition, which includes Second Harvest, the Christian grassroots lobbying group Bread for the World, and several other organizations, supports a legislative agenda that would give the federal government a more active role in treating poverty and hunger.

The groups recommend expanding and increasing funding for nutrition programs, especially the Food Stamp Program and the Special Supplemental Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC).

According to coalition leaders, the”safety net”has more rips and tears than ever after last year’s welfare reform act was passed. The law is aimed at reducing the number of people on welfare and cutting the costs of poverty programs.

The new law cut $4.5 billion from the Food Stamp Program but all of the food banks in the United States combined provide just $1 billion worth of food each year, said Robert Fersh, president of the Washington-based Food Research and Action Center.”None of us believe for a minute that the church and charities will be able to fill the gap that’s created by bad public policy,”said the Rev. David Beckmann, president of Bread for the World. He said many charities are overwhelmed by the additional operational and financial burdens they are expected to absorb as the new welfare bills kicks in.

Bread for the World has launched a separate but related campaign called”Tell Congress: Hunger has a Cure,”encouraging members, churches, campuses and other organizations to write members of Congress, urging them to fund nutrition programs that would help what the group says is the nearly 13 million hungry children in the United States.

Feeding hungry children is a particular concern of the anti-hunger coalition.

Vladimiroff called hunger a”disease that cripples our nation’s future”but added that it is a disease that is”100 percent curable.” According to Dr. J. Larry Brown, director of the Center on Hunger, Poverty and Nutrition Policy at Tufts University, the physical and intellectual development of children is seriously impaired by a lack of proper dietary nutrition.

Brown said he approved of President Clinton’s plan to make education a national priority, but added,”We’re wasting our investment if we don’t make sure the children get enough to eat.” He cited a study comparing two groups of poor school children: one group received school breakfasts and lunches, the other did not. The children receiving meals at school scored significantly higher on standardized achievement tests than those who went hungry, he said.”Children who are hungry are unable to learn or have enough energy to concentrate on their studies,”Brown said.

Coalition leaders said they also are concerned about the fate of legal immigrants and the elderly _ two groups also expected to have benefits reduced or eliminated under the new welfare reform bill.

But they said that overall they are optimistic about the future _ if the government, private groups, and ordinary Americans take their responsibility to end hunger seriously.”We have an optimistic vision of the future, a tomorrow when children can grow strong and be productive and full of energy,”Vladimiroff said.

MJP END JONGSMA