Letter from Phil Kirk

How Gleaning Can Eradicate Hunger

In her maiden speech on the floor of the U.S. Senate, Elizabeth Dole chose the subject of hunger in the United States to discuss along with setting forth some specific actions to deal with this issue.

“Hunger is the silent enemy lurking within too many American homes. It is a tragedy I have seen firsthand and far too many times throughout my life in public service,” said the Salisbury native.

She presented a many faceted approach to eradicate hunger in North Carolina. The cornerstone of her approach is a process called “gleaning” and The Society of St. Andrew is the sponsoring group.

Gleaning is simply when excess crops that would otherwise be thrown out and taken from farms, packing houses and warehouses is instead distributed to the needy.

Dole said that the most recent available figures indicate that approximately 96 billion pounds of good, nutritious food — including that at the farm and retail level — is left over or thrown away each year. She estimated that only six percent of crops are actually gleaned in N.C. She told of a tomato farmer in western N.C. who sends 20,000 pounds of tomatoes to the landfill each day during harvest season!

This dumping is not good for the environment. In fact, Dole said that food is the single largest component of our solid waste stream. Much of this food can be used to feed the hungry.

She presented a wide range of other options, including making more low income children eligible for free federally funded school lunches and reforming the tax code to allow more farmers and small businesses to donate food and to aid transportation companies to assist with transportation needs.

The freshman senator has put together a powerful bi-partisan group to assist her on this issue. Included are former Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman and Rev. Billy Graham.

She told of the efforts of her husband, Bob Dole, and another former senator, George McGovern. They are the architects of the Global Food Program, which has a goal of ensuring that 300 million school children overseas get a least one nutritious meal a day. The Department of Agriculture estimates that 120 million school-age children around the world are not enrolled in school, in part because of hunger or malnutrition. The program is currently operating in 38 countries and is feeding nine million school children. Dole called for expansion of the program.

A former president of the American Red Cross, she is no stranger to this issue. In 1969, she worked with the Nixon administration to organize the first White House Conference on Food, Nutrition and Health. Later as a staffer in the White House Office of Consumer Affairs, she helped lead the effort to place nutrition labels on most food items.

Dole, who has earned a reputation as a hard worker on behalf of those in need, also likes to be sure she knows firsthand the subject she is discussing. So she spent most of the Congressional Easter Recess visiting homeless and hunger shelters, food distribution sites, soup kitchens, farms and even applying for government assistance through the Woman, Infants and Children (WIC) program.

Dole raised more than $180,000 in a brief period of time to help the gleaning campaign in North Carolina. Among NCCBI members contributing were GlaxoSmithKline, F&M Bank, Wachovia, PepsiCo, Food Lion, and Coca-Cola.

On the Senate floor, she pointed out that contributions to the Food Banks in North Carolina are down while the requests for assistance are up. She said 11.1 percent of families in North Carolina routinely don’t have enough food to meet their basic daily needs.

I quote from the conclusion of Dole’s speech on the floor of the Senate. “Mr. President, in my lifetime, I have seen Americans split the atom, abolish Jim Crow, eliminate the scourge of polio, win the Cold War, plant our flag on the surface of the moon, map the human genetic code and belatedly recognize the talents of women, minorities, the disabled and others once relegated to the shadows.”

“Already, a large group of citizens have joined what I believe will become an army of volunteers and advocates. Today, I invite all of my colleagues to join me in this endeavor . . . let us recommit ourselves to the goal of eradicating hunger. Committed individuals can make a world of difference . . .  even, I might say, a different world.”

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