MonticelloLive

America is a country of many blessings - a rich land, a thriving democracy, a diverse and determined people. Our history is filled with the triumph of great victories; our culture is built on faith in freedom and on the spirit of community. Yet, in the face of this abundance, we throw away 96-billion pounds of fresh food every year. And while we produce more food than our citizens can consume, there are 36-million Americans, including 12-million children, who live in fear of having to forgo their most basic need - the need for food - because of a lack of resources. More than 17 percent of our fellow Arkansans live below the poverty line and can’t afford the high cost of food. One-in-six of our neighbors struggles to provide enough food to feed a family. In a land of such infinite promise, the growing number of those who go hungry every day is a national tragedyAn organization called the Society of St. Andrew has found a way to bridge the gap between the farm fields and the kitchen table. Its members are working with the Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance to glean from the fields of Arkansas farms in order to provide food for the hungry across our State. Gleaning involves gathering up the produce that remains in the fields after the harvest and then providing that farm-fresh produce to the food banks across the State. A committee has been formed to help identify farms, volunteers, and transportation to help in the gleaning process. Since June 9, nearly 100,000 pounds of food has been gathered from Arkansas farms to be distributed to local food banks. Snap peas, cabbage, sweet potatoes, peaches, sweet corn, yellow corn, and tomatoes, all fresh and healthy produce, are now being served on the tables of Arkansas’s families in need.

Generally, the crops left in the fields would end up taking up valuable space in our landfills. Now, thirty to forty-million pounds of produce can be saved annually by volunteers gleaning from our nation’s farms. Thanks to the volunteers and to the farmers involved in this effort, we are finding innovative solutions to help our communities become stronger and more equitable.

Too many Arkansans have faced the tough choice between buying food or buying gas for their cars, between providing meals for their families or cooling their homes. This problem is not confined to any one region of the State; there are hungry people in affluent areas, and there are hungry people in poor areas — no community is immune to this disturbing reality. The latest statistics show that 162,000 households in Arkansas are unable to reliably provide for their basic nutritional needs, and 58,000 suffer from persistent hunger.

Societies are judged by how their citizens treat the less fortunate. I encourage each of you to look around your communities and find ways to help pitch in. Whether you volunteer to help glean fields for food banks or make charitable contributions to local nonprofit organizations, the important part is that you give back. Working together, we can improve our State so that others will look to Arkansas as an example. And when they ask us how we did it, the answer will be because of our people.

To get more information about Arkansas’s gleaning efforts, please call the Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance at 501-399-9999 or visit the Society of St. Andrew online at www.endhunger.org.