While I was in Kerala, a random man asked me some questions about the US political system, and then asked a simple question, "Are there hungry people in America?"
This was before the current global food crisis hit the news cycle, before food prices were going up, and before the U.S. President and Indian politicians were blaming each other's citizens for the global food crisis. But the answer was still "yes." However, nothing compared to what I'd seen in India, and knew existed there.
I told this guy about the hunger you wouldn't expect, and the huge infrastructure addressing this problem--everything from public assistance in the form of Food Stamps, to thousands of places where people could eat (soup kitchens) or recieve food for free (food pantries) provided by charities, churches and some funded by the government.
I am thinking about this because I just read a great article in the New Yorker about a soup kitchen in New York City. (Not available online, in the May 26th issue.) It reminded me of how many people eat in soup kitchens, go to food pantries, how many others have ever volunteered in them, and just how much of a fixture they are in our society. Something that fades into the background, like brushing your teeth. We don't think about how amazing these efforts are, or how shocking the need for them in a place as prosperous and food-producing and overconsuming as America.
A lot more people are going to rely on these with food and other prices going up, while pantries and soup kitchens are facing increasing prices as well. There are a lot of complicated issues right now in global and local hunger, but it took a random conversation in India to re-open my eyes to the importance of these traditional solutions in America.
