Joel Berg---quite the character

For the less nerdy but still interested friends of food policy out there, you should know about Joel Berg. He served in several high-level positions in the USDA during the Clinton administration and is now the Executive Director of the New York City Coalition Against Hunger. In fact, I actually sat in on a few meetings with him during my work for Ben Thomases (then-Food Policy Coordinator for NYC) and had dinner with him and a few other students during a visit he made to Duke last fall. To sum up a very big man in a few words, he is a brilliant, unapologetically liberal, often over-the-top activist who is more than passionate about people's right to food. More specifically, he believes it is the job of the government to uphold and enable that right by providing the needy with adequate nutrition assistance (SNAP, WIC and the like). I actually don't think he'd mind me saying that on the occasions I've seen him speak, both in public and one-on-one to colleagues, he has gotten so worked up that he started sweating through his shirts and wheezing between clauses in his sentences. It's both comical and inspiring to watch someone who cares that much about justice do his thing.

While he really needs no help plugging his book (he's an expert if not subtle self-promoter), I would encourage anyone who's interested to read his book, All You Can Eat: How Hungry is America? (2008). We were assigned the book as part of our training, and I thought, as a public service to you all, I'd share a few surprising and interesting tidbits (stats current as of 2008):

• 35.5 million Americans, including 12.6 million children, live in a condition described by the federal government as "food insecurity," which means their households either suffer from hunger or struggle at the brink of hunger. (15)
• 88 percent of households on food stamps contained either a child, an elderly person, or a disabled person. (18)
• Thus, while much of the public still thinks that most poor people are healthy but unemployed, that describes less than one in five of the people in poverty--and many of those actively are looking for work. (133)
• American as willing to accept that we have poverty despite wealth, but they are loath to consider that we often have poverty because of wealth. (139)
• [Quoting President Bush in his 2007 State of the Union Address:] "When I graduated from college, the average corporate executive made 209 time what the average worker did. Today, it's nearly 400 times. In other words, it takes the average worker more than a year to make the money his or her boss makes in one day." (142)
• In 2006, adult women were 41 percent more likely to be poor than adult men. (181)
• A tenth of all black men between ages 20 and 53 are in jail or prison... (185)
• [Quoting a 2008 Father's Day speech by Barack Obama:] "...We need fathers to realize that responsibility does not end at conception. We need them to realize that what makes you a man is not the ability to have a child--it's the courage to raise one." (188)
• Trying to end hunger with food drives is like trying to fill the Grand Canyon with a teaspoon. (191)
• A 41% increase [in the federal nutrition safety net] would entirely eliminate food insecurity in America... (238)
• We can end food insecurity in America for just the cost of what the federal government spends on a year of agribusiness subsidies... (238)
• [Quoting Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., 1968:] "What does it profit a man to be able to eat at an integrated lunch counter if he doesn't earn enough money to buy a hamburger?"

So much to think about here. You can learn more about Joel at joelberg.net and www.nyccah.org. And of course, if you ever have an opportunity to hear Joel speak, by all means go! It will be an experience you won't soon forget.

Marie

(Photo from joelberg.net)