Ending Hunger in America, 2014 Hunger Report Full Report | Page 38

USDA/Lance Cheung

Sergio Baiz (right) and
Ed Rivas (left) of the San
Antonio Food Bank lift a
tub of potatoes that will
be cooked and mashed
for meals served in a
Kids Café program.

28?Introduction

The USDA administers 15 separate nutrition programs. Fighting hunger does not lend
itself to a one-size-fits-all approach. That’s also true at the local level. Portland, Oregon, may
not go about it in exactly the same way as Portland, Maine. It takes local ears to listen to what
those most affected by hunger are experiencing, and it takes local leaders to move members
of the community to advocate for better policies. Communities have different assets, leaders
have different styles, and the mix of local partners and the talents they bring to the enterprise
are different everywhere. As nutrition
programs are implemented at the local
level, the federal government has limited capacity to solve problems such as
low participation rates or stigma associated with some programs. The federal
government also has limited capacity to
monitor progress towards achieving the
goal at the local level. It relies on partners in the communities to handle these
and other issues—and to share information so that the legislative and executive
branches back in Washington, DC, can
improve policies.
Capacity building takes place at the
local level, but the federal government
has ways to support it. For example, the
Hunger Free Communities Network is
a mechanism that helps groups working
to end hunger in their local areas come
together to press for systemic changes that will reduce hunger on a larger scale. The Hunger
Free Communities Network got a boost from a federal grant program. In 2005, Bread for
the World’s annual Offering of Letters campaign had members lobbying Congress to pass
the Hunger Free Communities (HFC) Act that established the network. Eventually, Congress passed the HFC Act and provided one year of funding. Just that one round of grants
strengthened anti-hunger coalitions in communities across the nation.

In Search of the Common Good
In 2013, McDonald’s launched a website to show its workers, most of whom earn minimum wage, how to budget their salaries. According to McDonald’s calculations, workers
earning minimum wage would have to put in 74 hours a week just to afford basic living costs.
Some wondered if the site was a joke. But it was no joke.48 A typical McDonald’s worker,
reported Bloomberg News, would have to work a million hours each year to earn what the
company’s CEO was paid.49
The average Wal-Mart employee would have to work 785 years to earn one year’s salary
of the company’s CEO.50 Wal-Mart is the country’s largest private sector employer and one
of its most profitable. Four members of the Walton family earned a combined $20 billion
in investments last year.51 The company claims that it pays full-time workers an average of
n

Bread for the World Institute