Posted on Thu, Jul. 24, 2008

Hunger in South Florida?

 The answer can be found in the long lines at food banks and soup kitchens where the number of customers doubled and tripled this year. The confluence of events couldn't be worse.

The high price of food has sparked a secondary market where smashed canned goods or food that's about to expire are sold instead of donated to the food banks; dollar donations are shrinking; the cost of gas makes distribution more difficult; and government surpluses of farm products are gone.

''In 17 years, I have never seen the shortage of food we are seeing today,'' noted Patricia Robbins, founder of Farm Share in Homestead. ``While we are not turning people away, each person gets less food.''

Providing mostly produce to over 200 agencies in South Florida, Farm Share distributed 14.8 million pounds during 2007-08, which ended in June. That's 33 percent less than in 2005-06. In that period, state funding dropped by 50 percent, to $200,000 annually.

Every Saturday for the past two years, Amparo Valencia, a single mother of two, goes to the Amor y Fe Church in West Miami where there is a pantry. She used to leave with several bags but last week left with only one.

''Now you go, and if there is one thing there isn't another,'' said Valencia, 43, who left Colombia thinking she wouldn't go hungry in Miami.

SO MUCH MISERY

It is absurd that in South Florida -- where millions of dollars are spent worldwide to promote a cosmopolitan image, where we gloat that we have the ZIP Code with the nation's largest concentration of wealth, where we find money for performing art centers and other extravagant capital projects -- there is so much misery.

There are no exact figures, but Daily Bread, the region's largest food bank, supplies 800 agencies with more than 200,000 clients from West Palm Beach to the Keys, according to associate director Robert Peters. Based on Census data, the food bank estimates that there are 800,000 people in need among 5.6 million in four counties.

Productivity declines when there is hunger, because people stop showing up at work. In contrast with places such as Africa, in the United States hungry people aren't out on the streets if they can help it.

Congress recently passed the farm bill that earmarks $140 million for the food stamp program and to the states, depending on their poverty and unemployment indexes. Undocumented immigrants aren't factored in, so Florida will get less money than it should.

`GET INVOLVED'

Gloria Van Treese, head of the Florida Department of Agriculture's Bureau of Food Distribution, noted that ``unless local communities get involved, food banks won't be able to help the growing number of families.''

There are simple ways to help: Volunteer so relief agencies can save on wages; donate money to help cover fuel costs; organize food drives at churches and synagogues, community centers and schools; push local governments to become more proactive. . .

''Hopefully, those who have will remember those of us who are in need,'' said Valencia. ``We lack everything.''

GRANMA REPRINTED THIS ARTICLE,
BUT WITH A DIFFERENT PHOTO:

http://www.granma.cubaweb.cu/2008/07/25/interna/artic09.html