Monday, September 30, 2013

Seasoned with the Salt of God's Love

Our spirit should be quick to reach out toward God, not only when it is engaged in meditation; at other times also, when it is carrying out its duties, caring for the needy, performing works of charity, or giving generously in the service of others. Our spirit should long for God and call him to mind, so that these works may be seasoned with the salt of God's love, and so make a palatable offering to the Lord of the universe.

-John Chrysostom

Sunday, September 29, 2013

Hungry Children Song

Photo: NoKidHungry








Hungry Children
tune: Over the Rainbow
by Nora Freeman, 9/20/13

Right here, in America
There exist
Children who don’t have enough food
They are in our midst

Each day, they go to school with
Emptiness
Grumbling in their tummies
How can they learn like this

                No oatmeal, berries, yogurt or
                chicken, carrots, or cole slaw     
                Sustain them
                Some wonder why they don’t care to
                Read or write like others do
                But their hunger
                Drains them

Food stamps help their families
To provide
Enough and more nutritious food
So these kids can thrive

Farmers’ markets and gardens
Help a lot
But parents need money to buy food
And that’s what so many have not

                Their kids need good food just the same
                As yours and mine, so
                We should be ashamed!

Nora Freeman is a member of a singing group called the “Raging Grannies” that performs occaisionally at South (Presbyterian) Church in Dobbs Ferry, NY. 

Thanks to Stephen F. Groth, a Bread for the World member in Ardsley, New York, for sharing this song with us.

Saturday, September 28, 2013

A Restaurant for Expired Food from Trader Joe's

Photo: Society of St. Andrew
The Society of St. Andrew (SoSA) has put together an interesting site that provides information and tracks the amount of food that is being wasted (even as we speak).  The site has information about consumer food waste, agricultural food waste and environmental food waste in America as well as global food waste.

Using a variety of independent studies, the SoSA food waste site estimates agricultural food waste at 40% to 50% and consumer food waste at 40%. According to figures provided by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the World Economic Forum, roughly 70 billion pounds of edible food is lost in the United States each year.

Some organizations like the Food Recovery Network and Feeding America have put together programs to address the problem. But there are also smaller-scale efforts, such as the one put together by Doug Ruch, the former president of Trader Joe's.  Ruch created the The Daily Table, a combination restaurant and grocery in Dorchester, Massachusetts, that sells only prepared items created with recently expired products obtained from Trader Joe's. According to Ruch, the restaurant, which is just outside of Boston, "takes recently expired food and whips it up into delicious meals that can compete in price with the burgers and fries sold at fast food chains like McDonald's."

"It's the idea about how to bring affordable nutrition to the underserved in our cities. It basically tries to utilize this 40 percent of this food that is wasted. This is, to a large degree, either excess, overstocked, wholesome food that's thrown out by grocers, etc. ... at the end of the day because of the sell-by dates. Or [it's from] growers that have product that's nutritionally sound, perfectly good, but cosmetically blemished or not quite up for prime time. [So we] bring this food down into a retail environment where it can become affordable nutrition," Ruch said in an interview with National Public Radio.

Read more about this interesting concept  in Change Generation, The Boston Globe, and NBC-Los Angeles

Friday, September 27, 2013

No Significant Hunger in New Mexico?

“Since there has never been and is not now any significant evidence of hunger in N.M., I would offer that the focus of the report should be on getting proper nutrition to children (and adults).”   E-mail sent by Human Services Secretary Sidonie Squier

Hunger data for 2010 from Food Depot
Sidonie Squier is a member of the New Mexico Hunger Task Force and director of the Human Services Department, the state agency that manages food assistance programs.So when Secretary Squier says that there has never been and is not now any significant evidence of hunger in New Mexico, there is a justifiable and collective huh?!! from the media, legislators and anti-hunger advocates. 

Even her boss, Gov. Susana Martinez and other cabinet secretaries were forced into a spin mode to defend the secretary. "Of course there are children who are hungry in New Mexico," Martinez's spokesperson Enrique Knell told the Albuquerque Journal. "The governor knows that, and Secretary Squier shares her opinion that there is no excuse for a child in New Mexico to ever be hungry."

And Squier had to dig herself out of the hole the day after her infamous e-mail circulated. "I agree that there are hungry children in New Mexico, and none of them should go without access to food or be malnourished,” Squier said. “My email was poorly worded, and I share Gov. (Susana) Martinez’s goals of ensuring that every child has access to healthy meals.”
  
ProgressNowNM  grilled Squier over the coals because of the comment and joined others in calling for her resignation in recent post entitled ALERT: New Mexico Hunger Problem Solved. Overnight. "Not only is there no “significant evidence of hunger in New Mexico” now, there never has been! Problem solved. I guess we can all go home..," ProgressNowNM said sarcastically

While the criticism is warranted, a greater concern is more about the mentality associated with those comments. Secretary Squier represents the type of politician who believes that the role of government in helping people should be minimized. While she did not state that position directly, her thought process is very clear. This is the same mindset as the House members who voted to cut almost $40 billion from the Supplemental Nutrition Program (SNAP) over 10 years. 

I am willing to bet that Squier travels in circles where she does not have to encounter hungry people.

And by her comments, Secretary Squier seemed to imply that information from Feeding America and the Annie E. Casey Foundation about the high  rate of food insecurity and child hunger in our state is not accurate. Again, her comments didn't address the reports directly.  But when she said there has never been and is not now any significant evidence of hunger, her conclusions were different than those presented by the reports. The trends are not new. The Food Depot, Roadrunner Food Bank, the New Mexico Voices for Children, have been presenting evidence that hunger exists in communities throughout our state.

While I am not going to join those calling for Squier's resignation, I am going to urge the secretary to travel to the communities where hunger exists, to spend time with families that suffer hunger, to talk more to the social workers, health workers, nutritionists, food-pantry operators and officials from the food banks linked to the New Mexico Association of Food Banks. I am willing to bet that she was not one of the participants in Rep. Ben Ray Lujan's Virtual Town Hall on Hunger and Poverty. Once she learns the facts and experiences the realities of hunger in New Mexico, then she can do the job for which she was appointed.

And I will give the secretary credit for one statement in her e-mail, that a focus should be on getting proper nutrition to children (and adults). As the documentary A Place at the Table illustrates, food insecurity in our country is not necessarily manifested in the lack of food, but in the lack of nutritious food. So the secretary should follow up her efforts to learn about hunger in New Mexico by reviewing the data on food deserts and the availability of fruits and vegetables in inner cities and rural areas in our state. Believe me Secretary Squier, a child who has to fill up on foods like chips, which provide empty calories, is indeed a hungry person.

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

CRS: Video: Chile Farmers in Malawi Form Marketing Clusters to Boost Earnings

Photo; Catholic Relief Services
Many of my friends and acquaintances know that I am aficionado of the chile pepper.  I am also a dedicated anti-poverty advocate. So I was very pleased when Catholic Relief Services (CRS) posted the following feature and video, which tells us how chile farmers in Malawi pooled their resources to form marketing clusters via a program funded by USAID and administered by CRS..  (Note: I changed a word to my preferred spelling of "chile") 
 
Malawian farmer Violet Mponda used to sell her chile peppers to local buyers for less than 50 cents per pound. Other area chile farmers did too, and all of them just couldn't come close to earning enough money for a decent life.

Then they learned about a Catholic Relief Services-led program that showed them they can have strength in numbers.

The Wellness and Agriculture for Life Advancement project helped them form marketing clusters, groups of 100 to 150 farmers that can attract bulk buyers and bargain for better produce prices. With increased profits, farmers like Violet can now invest in fertilizer and diversify their crops, which translates into a more sustainable income and increased financial security for them and their families. The project is expected to provide nutritious food to 215,000 rural families and help 25,000 farmers learn to treat farming as a business. 

CRS has written other features about growing chile peppers in Malawi, including an article entitled Red Hot Chili Peppers by Sara  A. Fajardo.

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

An Anti-Poverty Video Showing... (Inside Your Taxicab?)

During this week’s meeting of the U.N. General Assembly, this surprisingly lively video clip from the World Bank, One Generation, Two Goals; 60 Seconds,  is showing in more than 6,000 New York taxicabs. (A part of the city's fleet of cabs is outfitted with video screens facing the back seat).


Monday, September 23, 2013

A Bread for the World Table

Terese Rand Bridges
Sometimes pictures say more than words, especially on Mondays. So I am sharing images of the Bread for the World table we set up at Shepherd of the Valley Presbyterian Church's mission fair on Sunday. Terese Rand Bridges from St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church joined me in asking folks to sign the petition to President Barack Obama and to make phone calls or write e-mails to our congressional representatives asking that sequestration be replaced with a responsible budget.   Terese was planning to use the same information at a similar fair at her church next Sunday.

Here is a close-up of our message.


We shared the table with these two wonderful ladies. Watch for a blog post on their project in the near futrue.

Sunday, September 22, 2013

A JustFaith Trip to El Salvador: 'History Taking Root'

We were told that El Salvador is doing 50% better than all of the countries around the world and 50% worse than all of the countries around the world - when it comes to poverty, violence, education, health care, and access to resources. We also learned that 90% of all of the drinking water in El Salvador is contaminated, therefore to have clean drinking water, people, if they can afford it, need to drink bottled water. Many people in El Salvador do not have this luxury.
Mike and Rosie Shawver participated in an international immersion trip cosponsored by JustFaith Ministries and Maryknoll Lay Misionaries this past summer. The Friends Across Borders program offers opportunities for people of faith and conscience to travel to Cambodia, El Salvador and Kenya. The Shawvers were part of a delegation that visited El Salvador in August.

Rosie recorded her experiences in a series of posts in her Catholic in the City blog.  Here are some excerpts.

El Salvador
Mike and I arrived to El Salvador on Friday, August 2nd. Once the tires of the plane hit the tarmac tears started to form in my eyes. I had arrived. Looking out the airplane windows I saw endless green, beauty, and serenity. It was hard for me to fully imagine the bloodshed that had occurred in such a gorgeous place during the Salvadorian civil war.

Prior to going to El Salvador - I knew all of the history intellectually. But while I was there the history took root in my very being. I felt and saw the struggle between those who have everything they need and those who are struggling to survive. I understood why people revolted against their own government in a much more palpable way. Honestly, I still saw suppression, extortion, corruption, and felt the presence of violence, although I never once felt afraid or threatened. What about hope? Yes, I did see and feel that presence also - this is what I hope my future blogs will be about.    Read the full post
 
Santiago Nonualco 
On Saturday, August 3rd, we visited the site of where four church women - two Maryknoll Sisters, one Ursline sister and a lay missioner - Jean Donovan, were martyred in Santiago Nonualco. One of the things that struck me most was that we met a priest, Fr. John, who was on site the day the women were found dead. This same priest had also carried Romero's casket just nine months prior to the women dying. Fr. John's living testimony was moving and passionate. These women were his friends.

Prior to their brutal murders all of these women had several chances to leave El Salvador, but they did not. They felt a deep calling to stay present and accompany those whom were suffering from the effects of the civil war. It made me question what would I do if I felt threatened because of the ministry I was doing?  Read full post

Water, Gang Violence, Parque Cuscatlán and El Rosario Church
Just outside El Rosario is Plaza Libertad. During the civil war on October 29th, 1979 there was a massacre in this plaza - campesinos (people from the country) were peacefully protesting the oppression of the government in the plaza and the military opened fire. People ran for cover in El Rosario Church. Those running into the church brought bodies with them in hope of either burying them or attempting to resuscitate them. Once the church was full the doors were shut. You can still see bullet holes in the church doors.

One thing that struck me while we were in El Salvador was the prominence of guns. Outside of every store - big or small, outside of churches, and sometimes even homes, every one had a security guard with a gun. Coming from a place in California where violence is not in my face all of the time, this was hard for me to see and be around. Are the guns used for intimidation? Security? Or perhaps a subtle reminder of the blood of the war and a reflection of who truly is in charge? I don't know. The civil war ended 20 years ago, but I still think the effects of the war, in the living memory of those who are there, is still very real. I am unsure of what Salvadorians think about the presence of guns everywhere, but I know that for me it was jarring and something I could not ignore.   Read full post

Rosie and Mike were involved in many social justice activities during their time in Albuquerque.  They now reside in the Los Angeles area.  Rosie is planning to add more reflections from the trip to El Salvador.  Check in the Catholic in the City blog for new posts.

Saturday, September 21, 2013

A SNAP Shot

I don't agree with the use of the term "the right-wing" media because it implies that journalists purposely take sides on this issue. Despite that concern, I decided to post this note because  I agree with the criticism that coverage of the food stamp program and those who receive the benefits has not always been fair and complete. Everything else in this message is true.


Friday, September 20, 2013

House Strips $40 billion from Food Stamp Program. Now What?

Photo: Bread for the World
The House of Representatives, in a highly partisan vote, moved to cut more than $39 billion in benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) over the next 10 years. The vote was a fairly narrow, with Rep. Steve Pearce among the 217 yes votes, all Republicans. Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham and Rep. Ben Ray Lujan were among the Democrats who voted No, along with 15 Republicans. There were six legislators who did not vote. Here is the Roll Call to HR3102 from the House Clerk.

The cuts represent the loss of about 1.5 billion meals in Fiscal 2014 alone, according to Feeding America. 

“The legislation will cause at least four million individuals to lose their SNAP benefits entirely, 850,000 households will lose an average $90 per month in SNAP benefits, and 210,000 children will lose free school meals. These cuts to SNAP combined with the scheduled American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) cuts to the program—scheduled to go into effect on Nov. 1, 2013—will result in the loss of about 3.4 billion meals provided to low-income Americans in 2014. That is more meals that the entire Feeding America Network of 200 food banks distributed through 61,000 food pantries and soup kitchens in 2013." 

The Center for Budget and Policy Priorities also warned about the devastating impact of the cuts on many working families.  

By cutting food assistance for at least 3.8 million low-income people in the coming year — including some of the very poorest Americans, many children and senior citizens, and even veterans — this cruel, if not heartless, legislation could jeopardize a vital stepping stone to many families who are still struggling to find work or who depend on low-wage jobs.  As the nation slowly climbs out of the deepest recession in decades — with 22 million people still unemployed or underemployed — millions of families rely on SNAP to help feed their children.'''

Earlier this week,  leaders from the Circle of Protection, a coalition of more than 65 heads of denominations and religious agencies, plus more than 5,000 church pastors, wrote letters to Congress urging a "no" vote on HR3012.  

"These proposed cuts are a clear indication that some in Congress underestimate the hunger that is present in millions of American homes," Bread for the World President David Beckmann wrote in a letter to Congress. "The amendment picks on the poorest people in the country. This is morally and economically unacceptable especially as some areas continue to experience high unemployment. Congress needs to focus on creating more jobs and not cut programs that stave off hunger for millions of people.”

So now what? These cuts are not final and must be reconciled with the much-smaller reduction of $4 billion approved in the Senate version of the Farm Bill. The Food Research and Action Center (FRAC)  believes there might be a possibility to address the problem in the House-Senate Conference Committee on the Farm Bill.

"It is time for the House and Senate conferees and the Administration to work for and produce a Farm Bill that makes sense for struggling Americans. It is time to stop playing politics with poverty, and to start helping low-income people. They must produce a good Farm Bill that does not cut SNAP and that places us on the path to ending hunger in this country."

Stay Tuned for Advocacy Opportunities 

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

The Circle of Protection and Sequestration

As the House of Representatives considers deep cuts in the SNAP program this week ($40 billion over the next 10 years), we are urged to call our member of Congress and ask him/her to oppose the drastic cuts.

In addition to our concerns about SNAP, there is a broader budget-related issue. Sequestration, the measure that implemented across-the-board cuts, remains in effect. "If left in place, sequestration will continue to drastically cut programs that help the most vulnerable, such as the nation’s international poverty-focused development assistance programs," said Eric Mitchell, Bread for the World's director of government relations.

How can you help? Here is what Bread recommends: Ask your senators and representative to pass a responsible budget that provides robust funding for international poverty-focused development assistance programs and puts an end to sequestration. Send an email or call now (800-826-3688)

Read More in the Bread Blog.

Reweaving the Circle of Protection
Sequestration was very much in the minds of some members of the faith community when they decided to reaffirm the Circle of Protection this past summer.  Here is an excerpt of a piece that Kathy Saile and Galen Carey wrote in The Hill, a publication that follows developments in Congress. The piece was published on July 21.

It’s been more than 140 days since sequestration went into effect, cutting $84 billion across the board from government programs this year. It may be difficult to comprehend the effects of that number. However, it is not difficult to comprehend that a child who is undernourished this year could have learning difficulties for the rest of her life—which will hurt her ability to earn enough money to provide for herself and her future children. It is not difficult to comprehend that a father in South Sudan who needlessly dies from AIDS this year because of reduced access to treatments will leave his family in dire straits. It is not difficult to comprehend that an elderly person on a fixed income in the Midwest will sit hungry and cold in a dingy apartment next winter because of cuts to essential assistance.

Allowing sequestration to be implemented—and to continue—shows an abdication of leadership, a refusal to make tough choices. Leadership is overdue. The Circle of Protection calls on Congress and the administration to join forces to defend programs vital to hungry and poor people. Indiscriminate sequestration should be replaced with a sound fiscal plan that assures children living in poverty access to learning opportunities and safe, decent housing; that offers the poorest and sickest people in developing countries access to lifesaving drugs; that provides nutritious meals to elderly Americans who might otherwise have nothing to eat.  Read Full Piece


Saile is the director of domestic social development of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and chairs the steering group of the Circle of Protection. Carey is the vice president for government relations of the National Association of Evangelicals. .

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Texas State Senators Urge Action to Address Food Insecurity in Lone Star State

In recent months, we've posted  data from Feeding America and the Annie E, Casey Foundation about increased food insecurity in New Mexico, and how Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham and Rep. Ben Ray Lujan are responding to the situation.

Logo from Think Progress
The crisis is also affecting our neighbors to the east, and some members of the Texas State Senate have taken note. "Some 2 million Texas children will go to bed hungry tonight, and many of their moms and dads are struggling to stay nourished, too," Sen. Eddie Lucio (Brownsville) and Sen. Letitia Van de Putte (San Antonio) wrote in an opinion piece in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram at the end of August. That’s truly a tragedy and one that demands our attention and our action."

The opinion piece also pointed to the feeding gap that occurs every summer. "More than 2.3 million Texas schoolchildren participate in the free and reduced-price meal programs during the school year. But, when school is out for summer, far too many of those children experience difficulty accessing healthy meals," said Lucio and Van de Putte.

The numbers are quite staggering. More than 685,000 young Texans missed out on the summer meal programs available to them. The drop-off in participation can be due to a number of contributing factors, including logistics and promotion for the local community agencies that work to bridge the gap for these young people."    Read Full Op-Ed

The information has also attracted attention in the broadcast media.  In June, the NBC affiliate in the Dallas-Fort Worth area reported that food insecurity in Texas was higher than the national average.  Beyond the media attention, The Texas Hunger Research Project  has been tracking trends in the state for many years.

Still, it is always good to see the issue of hunger and food insecurity get some press, especially via an opinion piece from lawmakers who can work on trying to address the problem. Now Lucio and Van de Putte's challenge is to convince their fellow lawmakers in Austin to join their efforts.

Monday, September 16, 2013

A Snake that Only Bites Those Who Are Barefoot

A quote from Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano on a wall in Ayacucho, Peru.  (Photo by Nancy Bauer)
Justice is like a snake; It only bites those who are barefoot   

Someone in the city of Ayacucho in the highlands of Peru quoted the Uruguayan poet, essayist and journalist Eduardo Galeano on the walls of the city square known as Plaza de Armas. Nancy Bauer, an anti-poverty advocate happened to be in that community during her recent trip to Peru to visit projects sponsored by the international organization CARE.  So she snapped a photograph of the wall.

(Archbishop Óscar Romero of El Salvador, by the way, also used this quote in one of his social commentaries).

So what does Galeano mean with this saying?

In an essay written in 2009 in the blog Atrevete a Ver la Verdad...Para Reflexionar, Para Pensar (Dare to See the Truth in Order to Reflect to Think), the Uruguayan author criticized the global system of laws, which readily punishes the poor and allows the wealthy to violate international principles with impunity.
Según la revista Foreign Policy, Somalia es el lugar más peligroso de todos. Pero, ¿quiénes son los piratas? ¿Los muertos de hambre que asaltan barcos o los especuladores de Wall Street, que llevan años asaltando el mundo y ahora reciben multimillonarias recompensas por sus afanes?

¿Por qué el mundo premia a quienes lo desvalijan?
¿Por qué la justicia es ciega de un solo ojo? Wal Mart, la empresa más poderosa de todas, prohíbe los sindicatos. McDonald’s, también. ¿Por qué estas empresas violan, con delincuente impunidad, la ley internacional? ¿Será porque en el mundo de nuestro tiempo el trabajo vale menos que la basura y menos todavía valen los derechos de los trabajadores? ¿Quiénes son los justos y quiénes los injustos? Si la justicia internacional de veras existe, ¿por qué nunca juzga a los poderosos?
Translation:
According to Foreign Policy magazine, Somalia is one of the most dangerous places in the world. Who are the pirates? Are they those who are dying of hunger who rob banks or are they the speculators of Wall Street, who for many years have robbed the world and are now receiving millions of dollars in recompense for their actions. 

Why is it that the world rewards those who cause it harm?
Why is justice blind in one eye? Wal Mart, the most powerful company in the world forbids the creation of unions. The same goes for McDonald's.  Why do these companies violate international laws with criminal impunity? Is because work is less valuable than trash in our contemporary world, and because the rights of workers are worth even less? Who are the just and the unjust? If international justice really does exist, why does it judge the powerful the least?

Read Galeano's full essay in Spanish

Sunday, September 15, 2013

Celebrating the Work of CARE Perú in Huancane Province

Uros women from San Martín (Photo: Nancy Bauer)
(Editor's Note: The author, an anti-poverty advocate from Roswell, Ga., is the founder of the Mango Tree Foundation. She recently returned from Peru, where she met with representatives from CARE Perú.  Her delegation viewed  five projects: two focused on livestock, one on Citizen Health Monitors, one  on maternal health and one on childhood malnutrition, prenatal care and early childhood education. Here is a piece that she wrote for CARE and shared with us for this blog).

By Nancy Bauer
We arrived at today’s first project visit in Huancane Province, Peru, to a reception befitting high-level celebrities. Men, women and children, village leaders and community representatives were standing in two lines that created a pathway for us to walk down. As we walked down the lines, I tried to make sure I stopped and personally greeted everyone there. The weather was questionable with on and off rain and low temperatures. But, this was clearly a celebration – a celebration of success, a celebration of life and family and celebration of what the future might bring.

We were escorted to white plastic chairs, asked to sit and quickly surrounded by all the beneficiaries in attendance. The most important guests, however, remained tethered in the large wide-open area surrounding us. They were the bulls! Amazing bulls - nice sized, healthy looking bulls. Bulls that soon would be headed to the market to be sold for beef, leather and offal. 

CARE Perú has several different focuses with this particular project. One is to provide technical training to growers teaching them how to maximize their feed to include a vitamin heavy diet coupled with natural local grains to help bulls gain weight faster.

Over the last five months, the time that CARE Perú has been involved, growers have reduced the time to increase weight and get bulls to market from a staggering and very costly 1-2 years to 3 months! In the future, the growers will be able to take bulls to market 4 times a year!

Additionally, CARE Perú has offered instruction on worming and eliminating other internal and external parasites. All key factors in growing healthy bulls. The growers have also been taught how to identify the bulls that produce the best meat by learning key physical characteristics – such as chest size, neck size, and slope of the bull’s neck. This kind of information transfer is critical to future success.

CARE Perú has also focused on human capacity development in this project. Since this area is very rural and saturated with small-scale subsistence based growers and producers, it was very difficult for individuals to get their cattle to market without a middleman. CARE Perú has emphasized an organizational structure focused on cooperative engagement. Now, many small cattle growers join together to share the costs of transporting their bulls to markets, which decreases the costs to the individuals.

Now, because of the strength of their cooperative, more small-scale growers are able to join in the process of selling their bulls. Being able to take their bulls to market has also eliminated the need for a middleman to handle the transactions. In general, a transaction now benefits the individual growers by approximately NS $1000 instead of the NS $400 they had been receiving. Incidentally, bulls weighing less than 500 KG (about 1100 pounds) are taken to Arequipa, Peru, a distance of about 60 miles. Bulls weighing over 500 KG are taken to Lima, a distance of about 500 miles but a drive that takes about 10 hours!

Taraco woman wears beautiful jacket (Nancy Bauer)
Two more highlights from this project visit: Amy and I got to help mix the feed that the women prepare for the cows including both the vitamin dense mix and the mix of local grains. The women knew exactly how much of each grain went into the mix and did it from memory. We got dirty but it was so awesome! And, the parade of bulls was a fabulous experience. We got to see these impressive bulls up close and personal! The community was so proud of these animals. They have every right to be.

We heard from about 10 of the participants in the program including women and men. I was able to ask some questions (cost of bulls, age of bulls when they were purchased, how they knew which bulls would bring good prices and whether or not they were doing any breeding of their own stock) but the weather got worse and since we were outside we disbursed.

Our next visit was to a project in the village of Taraco, Peru, still in Huancane Province. This project was basically a duplicate of the earlier project we visited today. There we had the opportunity to talk with more women and men raising cattle to sell for beef. Their project was a little different because they also had cows used for milk and cheese. Right now, the milk and cheese are kept within the communities for supplemental food. This community also has pigs and chickens. Since the rain had increased we were sitting in a shed with a roof over it.

In 2010 this community lost every thing in flooding. I had a chance to measure the water level during the flood against my height (5’4” on a tall day) and it came up to the top of my hip. The shed we were sitting in was critical for their cattle during the rainy season to prevent them having to stand in 1-1/2 to 2 feet of mud. Several of the participants emphasized the need for more shed structures to protect cattle. Some of the bulls were tethered close by and they were amazing animals. We got to hear from several participants on how CARE’s work has benefitted them and we heard many of the same stories we had heard from our first visit: Increased profit, more information on proper feeding to increase weight, and cooperative/community building were all key topics.

One of the highlights of this visit was having an opportunity to hear Dina talk about the difference in her life because of her ability to be part of this project. Her partner was away most of the time working in the surrounding cities so she had the primary responsibility to care for their livestock and her son. She rose at 4:30 every morning to do chores then took her son to school on her bike – 8 kms each way.

We had a short time to ask questions and to visit with the women and men. Intelligent men and women who are looking for a better life. Simple ideas can make such a huge difference. I’m so glad I had the opportunity to see this work first hand.

Saturday, September 14, 2013

A Place at the Table on Campus

The community organization Project Feed the Hood, which is associated with the Southwest Organizing Project, is planning two campus screenings of the documentary A Place at the Table.  The movie is an anchor for Bread for the World's 2013 Offering of Letters.

On Wednesday, October 2, the movie will be shown at Garcia Honda Auditorium (George Pearl Hall) at the University of New Mexico School of Architecture. George Pearl Hall is located on Central Ave. next to the UNM bookstore. The proposed agenda is for the event to begin with a panel discussion at 4:00 or 5:00 p.m., followed by the screening of the film and a question-and-answer session.  " We are excited to bring you several community professionals to talk about food and how it affects our daily lives," said the event organizers.

Incidentally, Travis McKenzie, garden coordinator at Project Feed the Hood, was one of the members of a panel of community experts who spoke after the showing of A Place at the Table at the National Hispanic Cultural Center in July. That screening was organized by Partnership for Community Action, with financial assistance from Presbyterian Hospital and Our Lady in the Valley Episcopal Church. 

Second Screening at CNM
The date and details of the second screening have not been determined, but the location is known.  The event will take place sometime in October or early November in the Smith Brasher Hall auditorium on the campus of Central New Mexico Community College.  Smith Brasher Hall is located on University Blvd. and Coal Ave.  Stay tuned for more details.

If you are on Facebook, you can receive regular updates on the two screenings via this event site.  All you have to do is indicate that you are attending or click on maybe, and the updates will appear automatically on your news feed.

Friday, September 13, 2013

A Helpful List for People Working on a Masters Degree on Social Work


Are you working on a Masters degree in Social Work (MSW)? An organization called MSWOnlinePrograms.org urges you to consider 99 organizations that address hunger and poverty in one form or another.  There are some familiar names on the list, including national groups like Bread for the World, Oxfam America, Mazon, RESULTS, Feeding America, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the End Hunger Network (the group that Jeff Bridges helped to found) and many others. 

There are also many regional organizations, including some familiar names like Hunger Free Colorado and Santa Fe-based Farm to Table.

Here is what the organization tells visitors to the site:
Alleviating poverty is one of the core missions of the social work profession, and one of the major difficulties that often goes along with poverty is hunger. Families who lose financial stability often have a hard time getting enough to eat, and the process for getting food stamps or other government assistance can be arduous. Food banks play a huge part in making sure that families affected by poverty, especially those with children, can get what they need. Any social worker with clients affected by poverty may need to help their clients get connected with local food banks and organizations that provide nutritional and monetary assistance. Additionally, many social workers are employed at, or collaborate with, groups that advocate on behalf of those in poverty to help them get food, shelter, and equitable legal treatment.

Here is the full list . (The organization points out that this is not a ranked list, but an acknowledgment of organizations that are doing good work, and a resource for social workers, or social work students, who want to make alleviating poverty and hunger a central mission in their social work careers).

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Las Cruces Bishop Oscar Cantú Speaks Out Against Cuts in SNAP

Bishop Oscar  Cantú
Bishop Oscar Cantú has led the Diocese of Las Cruces for just a few months, but he has shown the same zeal as his predecessor, Bishop Ricardo Ramírez, in speaking out for the poor. Here are excerpts of an opinion piece that Bishop  Cantú wrote for the Silver City Sun-News, published on Sept. 2

Deep cuts to food assistance a moral scandal 

During Labor Day weekend we take time to reflect on what allows us to "put food on the table." In my line of work, as a pastor, I encounter people regularly who have to make difficult choices that no one should have to make: do I buy food or do I pay my rent? Many of our churches, synagogues, schools and community centers try to lend a hand to families in need. In many cases, the aid is appreciated but insufficient to get the family to a position of self-sufficiency.

It is during this time when so many Americans struggle to find work and put meals on the table that lawmakers in Washington are cutting a vital lifeline -- food assistance -- that protects vulnerable families from falling into poverty. This is a moral scandal that betrays our nation's best values and highest ideals.

The U.S. House of Representatives is targeting the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as food stamps. SNAP is widely regarded as the nation's most effective anti-hunger program. It kept more than 4 million people out of poverty in 2011, according to the non-partisan Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, and reduced the number of children living in extreme poverty that year by half. The House is proposing to slash $40 billion over the next decade from this successful program -- double the amount lawmakers considered    Read full opinion piece

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Emptier Cupboards: Albuquerque Journal Article Illustrates Impact of Pending SNAP Cuts on Some Families

A report from the New Mexico Voices for Children a couple of weeks ago warned that the expiration of the economic stimulus package that was created in response to the 2007-2008 recession would result in a reduction in food stamp benefits for more than 442,000 New Mexicans.

The Albuquerque Journal picked up on this issue and published a feature on how this situation was going to affect some of those families.  Here is an excerpt from the article written by staff writer Elaine Tassy. 

Just about everyone who receives monthly food help from the SNAP program, roughly one in every five New Mexicans, will see a cut in benefits when a piece of the stimulus package boosting that program ends in less than two months.

New Mexico’s most vulnerable adults, and nearly half of its children, use the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps.

“It’ll be hard,” said Anna Martinez, 54, a disabled woman from the South Valley whose $53 in food stamps every month helps supplement her $985 in Social Security benefits. Together, that must pay for her $765 rent, plus household supplies and more than a dozen medications. She stands to see a reduction of close to $5 per month. “I don’t know how they expect people to survive,” she said, “especially if you can’t work.”

Even as SNAP benefits dip, Roadrunner Food Bank is beefing up its efforts to teach people who might qualify for benefits how to navigate the SNAP enrollment process, since thousands of eligible New Mexicans are not enrolled.

Roadrunner is also training its volunteers to show constituents how to sign up when they pick up food at distribution sites such as schools, churches and other community organizations, and it is training staff members of other community organizations on how to assist the people they serve in applying for SNAP.

Link to full article
(You can read the full piece if you have a subscription or by answering a couple of questions from advertisers)

Monday, September 09, 2013

It's CROP Walk Season in New Mexico

(Photo Church World Service)
Church World Service is sponsoring nine CROP Walks in New Mexico in the fall of 2013 and another one in the spring of 2014. People of faith in each of these 10 communities are walking a few miles not only to raise funds for hunger and disaster relief but also to raise raise awareness about the issue. Last year, 160,000 walkers of all ages around the country participated in a CROP Walk. Keep in mind that a CROP Walk is not only for walkers but also for those who support them with a monetary donation.  Read about previous walks in Albuquerque in 2009, 2011 and 2012 and  Las Cruces in 2010.

Click on the highlighted name of the city to learn more about each walk, including the contact information for the organizers, how to donate to participants in that particular walk and other details. In most cases, there is a link to the church or college where the walk begins. Some details are yet to be completed, particularly for the later walks, so please keep checking for updates.

September 28
Curry County-Clovis
Trinity Lutheran Church
1:00 p.m.

October 5
Farmington
The Maranatha Fellowship Christian Reform Church
8:30 a.m.

October 6
Four Corners- Aztec
Aztec United Methodist Church 
3:00 p.m.
 
October 12 
Las Vegas/Montezuma
United World College
9:00 a.m. to Noon

October 19
Las Cruces
Kohl's (2500 N. Triviz Dr.) map
10:00 a.m.

October 20  
Gallup
(starting site and time TBD)

Albuquerque Walk started at Second Presbyterian Chuch in 2011 (Photo Laura Elizabeth Pohl)















October 20
Albuquerque
Church of the Good Shepherd
Registration: 1:30 p.m., Walk: 2:00 p.m.

November 2
Carlsbad
(starting location  and timesTBD)

November 17
Los Alamos
(starting location and time TBD)

April 28, 2014
Roswell
(starting location and time TBD)

Sunday, September 08, 2013

Fair Trade in Santa Fe (Part 2) The Ten Thousand Villages Store

Does any other Ten Thousand Villages store greet customers with chile ristras at the door?
The Ten Thousand Villages store in Santa Fe is located just a short walk from the historic Santa Fe Plaza on Galisteo St. There are many popular landmarks nearby, including the famous Coyote Cafe and Blue Corn Cafe on Water St.

A thank you for your purchase
When you first walk in the store, you immediately notice the wide variety of products available to potential customers displayed in a pleasant and spacious manner.  It's a unseasonbly warm day in Santa Fe, and the volunteer at the counter offers visitors water from a pitcher with ice and lemon wedges.  "There's coffee in the back," she says,  Then she asks all visitors whether they know about fair trade.

As is the case in most Ten Thousand Villages stores around the country, you can find wall decor, kitchen and dining items, home accents, scarves and bags, baskets and many other fair-trade items. And of course,we can't forget the coffee!

It's great to have a store that offers fair-trade products in the Albuquerque-Santa Fe area, filling the void that was left when Peacecraft closed its doors a few weeks ago.  Store manager Trish Padilla, who is responsible for the creating the beautiful displays, said this particular This Ten Thousand Villages store has been around since July of 2012.  So there was some overlap with Peacecraft.  The store in the City Different  is actually owned by Ten Thousand Villages. Some Ten Thousand villages locations are contract stores--where a local group or individual owns them, but Ten Thousand Villages provides the inventory and sets the guidelines.

Community Activities
Padilla is proud to point out that the local store is very much a community partner, with several activities at the site over the next few months.  In particular, she wants to highlight the Hispano History Month Celebration, scheduled for Oct. 17. 

Here is the full list:

September 14  1:00-4:00 p.m.
Friendship Day - Patio Reception
(local actress Marilyn Adams portrays Eleanor Roosevelt)
Special guests: Girl Scouts of Santa Fe

September 21 1:00-5:00 p.m.
International Peace Day - Patio Reception
Special guests: Women of different faiths (Mennonites of Albuquerque, Catholic Charities, Jewish Temple, Buddhist Temple, Sikhs).

October 5
Balloon Saturday  
The store will commemorate the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta (Oct. 5-12)

October 17
Hispano History Month  1:00-4:00 p.m.
Special guests: Santa Fe Hispano Chamber
featuring   Rising Stars in the Southwest

October 26  1:00 -4:00 p.m.
Dia de los Muertos 
Reception  Costume Contest


November 9
Bag Day
A discount on all the products you can fit in a large paper bag  Details to be announced

November 21
Santa Fe Chamber of Commerce Business After Hours

Saturdays in December -gift wrapping

December 7 - Community Day  Details TBD

December 21 -Winter Solstice Celebration

Details for some of these events have not been finalized. And some of the events might be subject to change. Check on this site for updates or contact santafe@tenthousandvillages.com

Saturday, September 07, 2013

Fair Trade in Santa Fe (Part 1) Direct Trade Coffee from Level Ground

Ten Thousand Villages manager Trish Padilla
The Ten Thousand Villages store in Santa Fe carries a different brand of coffee called Level Ground. The coffee packages is missing the familiar Fair Trade Certified symbol, but they do emphasize that the coffee beans were purchased through direct fair trade.

Store manager Trish Padilla said she decided to carry the Level Ground brand (replacing another popular fair trade brand) after making a personal connection with Hugo Ciro the founder of Level Ground. (Read more about the history of the company).

Level Ground also offers dried fruit, cane sugar and coconut oil, but the Ten Thousand Villages store in Santa Fe does not yet carry these products. The store does carry several types of coffee, including French Roast, and beans from Tanzania, Colombia, among others. 

Here's an explanation about direct trade from Ethical Coffe.net
Direct trade is a term used by coffee roasters who buy straight from the growers, cutting out both the traditional middleman buyers and sellers and also the organizations that control certifications such as Fair Trade and Bird Friendly, for example. Direct trade proponents say their model is the best because they build mutually beneficial and respectful relationships with individual producers or cooperatives in the coffee-producing countries. Some roasters do it because they are dissatisfied with the third-party certification programs, while others want to have more control over aspects ranging from the quality of the coffee, to social issues, or environmental concerns.

What's the downside?
A lack of certification from a group like the Fair Trade Federation means that the consumer must believe in the company. "If you trust the company to stick to its own standards, without third-party certification (and if you agree with their standards), then all's well. But there's no outside enforcement, so standards could be changed or weakened at any time," said Ethical Coffee.net

This concern might not apply to Level Ground, which has has pledged to keep the practices that make its coffee direct fair trade.  Read More

Next:  Part 2 will take a closer look at the Ten Thousand Villages Store