Summer 2013 Volume 18 Number 3 ▪ About this Issue By Jane and Larry Levine▪ KIDS: Our roots and future By Jane and Larry Levine▪ WhyHunger: Suppo
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Summer 2013
Volume 18
Number 3 |
This is a special issue of the newsletter. The entire issue is devoted to the six member organizations of the Finding Solutions to Poverty & Inequality Alliance (FSPI).
In discussions with the members, we asked them to write an article about their organizations. We did not give them any firm guidelines, but rather expressed our desire to present whatever “faces” the members wanted to display.
As you will read, there is a commonality in the articles. Some presented a history from the birth of the organization to the present and a brief look at what they see the future holds in store. Some simply dusted off the crystal ball and concentrated on what is to come.
We hope that you will find all the articles of interest and you come away from this issue with a better understanding of the Alliance members.
Finally, construction is underway on the KIDS website to produce a FSPI portal. This portal will allow the visitor to get inspired, learn, act and reflect on activities available the various alliance members. |
Larry and Jane Levine |
As we enter KIDS’ 20th year, it is a time for reflection and gazing into the crystal ball to see what the future holds in store for the program.
KIDS started on a cold winter's day in February 1994, when we faced 100 sixth grade students from the York Middle School in York, Maine. Two sixth grade teachers had asked us to participate in a yearlong program on food by speaking to the students about hunger and poverty. We did not know it at the time, but this encounter would be the start of Kids Can Make A Difference® (KIDS).
Based on our experience with the York Middle School students, we decided to find out if other schools would be interested in having their students learn about hunger and poverty. We read in local newspapers about schools that were staging special events such as helping out at a local food pantry, or holding a "hunger banquet." We contacted the teachers involved, explained what we had done at York Middle School and arranged to speak to their students.
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Jessica Powers |
WhyHunger is a global nonprofit that was founded in 1975 by the late singer-songwriter Harry Chapin (“Cat’s in the Cradle”) and current executive director Bill Ayres. They wanted to address the underlying causes of hunger and poverty and found inspiration and innovation coming from the grassroots, from community-based organizations across the country that sought to transform their own neighborhoods. Because these groups were often acting in isolation, Bill and Harry began to think about how to connect them and amplify their voices. They reasoned that creating networks of advocates and raising public awareness would help build the political will to end hunger.
At WhyHunger, we understand hunger to be more than simply a challenge of food production, distribution and access. If that were the case, the considerable efforts by the government and food banks to close those gaps would have solved the problem decades ago. It is instead a systemic problem, one that requires leadership from the grassroots to create change at the local level and a significant shift in policy agenda to support that change and bring it to a national stage. Food, then, becomes a prism to examine the interconnectedness of racial and economic justice, climate change and the environment and community transformation. We are also influenced by the concept of food sovereignty—from the Spanish soberanía alimentaria, originally coined by La Via Campesina, an international farmer and peasants movement— which sees food as a right rather than an access issue and advocates for rebuilding regional food and farm economies.
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Dana Mortenson |
Across the country, the need for global competency has never been more pronounced. A decade or two ago, it was possible to live in an insular way-- unaware or underexposed to the rich ethnic and cultural diversity that was mostly confined to large cities and border states. Today, nearly all communities benefit from the richness that diversity infuses into our lives. In fact, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, over 50 percent of nationals younger than age 1 were minorities as of July 2011. Our country’s demographics have clearly changed, and to succeed, we must learn to live, collaborate, and work as never before.
The overwhelming need for global competency is especially apparent in the workplace. In corporations, more than 60% of growth in business is tied to international markets. To be conversant, capable and comfortable working with people from diverse backgrounds, our workforce must be globally competent and equipped with critical skills. In a recent conversation with employers from one of the world's leading consulting firms, I asked 30 employees at various levels to sum up in a word or phrase what they did on an average day. I heard words like 'cross cultural communication', 'empathy', 'critical and analytic thinking' and 'collaboration'. These skills --and many more--are defining characteristics of global competency; and for too long, were absent in our classrooms and schools.
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Raymond C. Offenheiser |
The Oxfam confederation’s 2013-2019 strategic plan affirms our vision of a just world without poverty and sets a course that furthers our work to create lasting rights-based solutions to the injustice of poverty. At its core, it reflects our belief that change is about tackling the conditions that cause famine and putting tools in the hands of people that empower them to preserve their health, dignity, and safety.
With this strategic plan, Securing Rights at Scale, we at Oxfam America set forth our intention to influence three specific imbalanced systems that deny people their basic human rights and keep them from lifting themselves out of poverty. This focus will allow us to leverage our strengths on behalf of the confederation and greater social justice movement.
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Jen Girten |
“When they reach out their hand, it’s not for a handout, but it is for us to take and for us to walk together.” – UNKNOWN
There marks the beginning of Heifer International’s mission to end hunger and poverty by working with communities in need around the world. We envision a world of communities living together in peace and harmony and equitably sharing resources of a healthy planet.
18.5 million families. 94 million men, women and children
These are the people whose lives have been changed with a gift from Heifer International – people who escaped poverty and found a life of dignity and hope. Since 1944, Heifer has used its simple model to alleviate suffering, not just for a few days, but for a lifetime.
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Ken Patterson |
Some would say that RESULTS’ vision is crazy, pie-in-the-sky, naïve. After all, who creates a vision of a world without poverty and really thinks that it is doable? Here is RESULTS’ vision:
To be the leading catalyst of rapid progress toward a world where poverty no longer exists:
* Where nobody dies of causes in one part of the world or nation that are easily preventable in other parts of the world or nation,
* Where all our children are receiving a quality education,
* Where all people have access to economic opportunity,
* Where all people have access to basic health care,
* Where a critical mass of people take responsibility for guiding their government decision makers and others to create a world that includes all of the above.
If this vision sounds lofty, perhaps even foolish to many, imagine how it sounded 33 years ago when RESULTS got started.
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Danielle Nierenberg |
Food Tank: The Food Think Tank works to offer solutions and environmentally sustainable ways of alleviating hunger, obesity, and poverty by creating a network of connections and information for us to consume and share. For the first time in history, malnutrition and overeating are evident in the same countries and even the same families. Additionally, agriculture now contributes roughly 30 percent of all global greenhouse gas emissions. Agricultural and food systems as they stand currently are unsustainable—for the environment, for human health, and for the well being of both producers and consumers.
While we need new thinking on global food system issues, we also need new doing: Food Tank is for collaboration between farmers and producers, policy makers and government leaders, researchers and scientists, academics and journalists, and the funding and donor communities, providing sustainable solutions for our most pressing environmental and social problems. Food Tank seeks to align agricultural systems with nutritionally sound and environmentally responsible food systems, and healthy food for eaters with sustainable growth for farmers and entrepreneurs.
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