INTRODUCTION
The accumulation of wealth provided a cushion to complement a couple’s Social Security
benefits in retirement, or it could be used to finance other investments that pay off in the
long term, such as college educations for children, home improvements, or starting a small
business. Most small businesses in America are capitalized with the owner’s personal wealth.
Only small businesses of a relatively “big” size find that mainstream financial institutions are
willing to extend them low-interest credit.
Public-Private Partnerships and Community Initiatives
The federal government cannot end hunger by itself. It needs partners in state and local
government and in civil society—such as the thousands of nonprofit organizations and volunteers who fight hunger every day in their communities. It needs business leaders who
understand the scarring effects of hunger on human capital development and how food
insecurity harms the economy. And, of course, people living in poverty will do most of what
needs to be done to end hunger for themselves and their families. A goal to end hunger will
not be met unless it is adopted and “owned” by all of these partners.
Setting a national goal to end hunger could mobilize our whole society. When a president sets
a goal to end hunger, we expect states and localities to
embrace it and deploy resources of their own. Some community groups and businesses, along with many poor
people, will join in. The conversation rises in pitch and
encourages others to participate, and the goal becomes a
priority for the nation as a whole. As more people support
it, new leaders emerge with new ideas of how to achieve
the goal, and the engines of innovation begin to hum.
Partnership means recognizing the value that different partners bring to the common aspiration. Nothing
at the state or local level can match the sheer volume of
resources the federal government contributes. In 2012,
Bread for the World produced a fact sheet showing that
for every 24 bags of food assistance in the United States,
government nutrition programs account for 23.47 But
what the fact sheet did not show is how many of those
bags get to where they are needed because of the tireless
efforts of partners in local communities. These include
volunteers doing SNAP outreach, elected officials
streamlining how nutrition programs are implemented
so that more people can participate, food service directors figuring out creative ways to get healthier foods into
school meal programs, church leaders hosting summer
food sites, food banks distributing government commodities, government workers defeating their stereotyped
image as impersonal bureaucrats, and more. These are
all examples of how partners at the local level enhance
what the federal government does to fight hunger.
www.bread.org/institute?
Johnnie Jones of the U.S.
Department of Agriculture
fills bags with oatmeal
purchased in bulk to be
distributed by the Arlington
Food Assistance Center in
Arlington, Virginia.
USDA/Bob Nichols
? 2014 Hunger Report? 27
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