None of our neighbors ought to go hungry at Christmas.
This is the season during which many of us make our annual charitable donations. For some, charity is a religious duty. For others, giving is part of holiday tradition. Some just want to beat the end-of-the-year deadline for income-tax deductions.
Whatever our motivation, none of us can fix all the world’s ills, so we make a choice about where to direct our charity. My family always gives to a local food bank.
Perhaps this is bad economics. You know the proverb, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” In the long run it’s more “efficient” to help the needy to become self-sufficient than it is to keep feeding them.
I don’t care. Emotionally, I can’t deal with knowing that neighbors go hungry amidst our great and fortunate bounty.
Fortunately, Washington’s food banks are hard at work turning dollars into meals.
According to the Volunteers of America – the holiday bell ringers in the Santa hats – Washington’s hunger rate is the fifth highest in the nation. Two of five people served by Washington food banks are children. In Snohomish County alone, the food-bank coalition provided almost half a million meals.
The Volunteers of America of Western Washington (www.voaww.org) and of Spokane (www.voaspokane.org) are faith-based organizations providing a “ministry of service” to those in need. VAWW alone serves more than 3 million pounds of food a year.
Food Lifeline (www.foodlifeline.org) provides meals for 550,000 Washingtonians in 17 western counties, reaching about one state resident in 10. This single agency, the state’s largest hunger-relief group, distributes more than 20 million pounds of food through its food-bank network. Food Lifeline is the Western Washington affiliate of America’s Second Harvest. In addition to individual donations, Food Lifeline is supported by restaurants and grocery stores that rescue foodstuffs that would have gone to waste.
In Eastern Washington, Second Harvest Inland Northwest (www.2-harvest.org) provides 14 million pounds of food a year to programs in 21 counties, as well as to programs in five Idaho counties. Second Harvest feeds a family of four for as little as $35 a week.
The Emergency Food Network (www.efoodnet.org) is entering its 25th year of seeking “to provide a reliable food supply so that no person in Pierce County goes hungry.” EFN helps 140,000 people a month. Uniquely, EFN’s volunteer-operated Mother Earth Farm produces organic food that goes straight from farm to food bank.
For four decades, Northwest Harvest (www.northwestharvest.org) has distributed food to the hungry across our state. Today, receiving not a penny of government money, Northwest Harvest provides 18 million pounds of food through 300 food banks. That’s enough food for half a million meals a month.
Northwest Harvest reports that about 40 percent of those served are babies and children and another 17 percent are seniors. These numbers are likely typical of other hunger agencies around the state as well. Northwest Harvest’s policy is:
“We serve all who present themselves as in need. They don’t have to live here, and we don’t ask for ID, proof of income, Social Security numbers, documentation or why they are here.”
Northwest Harvest’s policy resonates with me. Plain and simple: feed the hungry.
Give money if you can. Volunteer time if you can.
This holiday season, do your part to feed a neighbor in need.
Dick Startz is Castor Professor of Economics at the University of Washington. He can be reached at econcol@u.washington.edu.
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