Ending Hunger in America, 2014 Hunger Report Chapter 4 | Seite 14

CHAPTER 4
dreamed of. All of these projects produced the twin benefits of helping the poor and the
hungry and teaching the people of Dayton about problems and ways that individuals can
help. We were building a constituency for the hungry. In addition they also served as models
for other communities to emulate.”18
By the time Hall left office, there were still people in Dayton who were hungry. The stubbornness of hunger and poverty
in the city and surrounding areas
is inseparable from the economic
fortunes of the region. Deindustrialization has pummeled Dayton’s
manufacturing base, the foundation of the local economy since
World War II, as it has other areas
of the Rust Belt. It’s what Jim Weill
was saying about the economy
being akin to the long game in golf.
“What’s important,” says Hall,
“is that many people in Dayton
are committed to helping the less
fortunate.” By the end of his career
in Congress, when his office surveyed people in the district about
the issues they cared most about,
hunger had risen to the top of their
concerns. “In my later years in
Congress,” he says, “we asked people what they would want to talk about if they had a chance
to talk with me. Almost 80 percent said they’d like to talk about hunge