Fed Up with Hunger’s Big Sunday project was a gleaning of the Hollywood, Larchmont, Brentwood and Encino Farmers Markets.  Our cheery volunteers from the Jewish Federation’s young leadership divisions and Birthright Next solicited produce donations from farmers market shoppers and vendors alike.  We mercilessly unleashed our smiles and go get ‘em enthusiasm, inspiring scores of vulnerable, charity prone people  into giving us produce.

I’m happy to report that people gave generously.  Shoppers dropped off a continual stream of full paper bags and, at the end of the day, the vendors let us have their still good, but unsellable fruits and vegetables.  Ultimately, we raised over 1500 pounds of produce!!!  Our gargantuan haul was divied up between JFS-SOVA, the Greater West Hollywood Food Coalition and Food Finders.  This week, hundreds of hungry people will eat healthful, nutritious meals because of our Big Sunday volunteers’ incredible efforts! 

We were very excited to have Repair the World come out and videotape the goings on as part of their documentary on all the inspiring service projects that Jewish organizations are doing all across the country.  We had to be on our best,
most enthused behavior.    Sometime soon you’ll be able to see us traipsing around the Hollywood Farmers Market and spieling about hunger and food insecurity in live action.

 There’s no two ways about- we had a blast out there.  You can’t help but have a good time when you get to watch a male volunteer in an extra small woman’s Big Sunday shirt waving around a sign in the middle of a crowd or receiving a generous donation from Mr. Billy Zane himself.  I can’t wait to do this again next year!

It’s not as much of an oxymoron as you may think.  Our hunger banquet, an event originally pioneered by Oxfam International, brought college students together from UCLA, USC and Hebrew Union College to examine the full breadth of food security, from those who eat well to those who barely eat at all.  A lucky few did get to partake in the smorgasbord…but most were not so lucky.

The banquet program ran similarly to a Passover Seder: a lengthy scripted conversation and a meal, culminating in a moment of reflection.  The students learned that food insecurity in the developing world and here in the United States is different, but very much the same.  For you folks at home, I’ll boil it down to the elevator speech: the food insecure, both here and abroad, suffer from impaired development and chronic disease that engenders poverty and pushes a happy, healthy life further out of reach for the vulnerable people that live in our community.We were lucky to have Jeanne Smith, Chaplain and Director of UCLA’s Wesley Foundation and Rabbi Noah Farkas from Valley Beth Shalom to help bring the big ideas and abstract numbers of food insecurity down to earth by relating first hand experiences they’ve had of people suffering from hunger.  Rabbi Farkas spoke of a little, starving girl he met while building a school in Ghana.  Jeanne told the story of her humanitarian mission to Haiti, obviously still haunted by the failed state’s desperate, teeming masses.  These were  ”light bulb”  moments that motivated them to make social action and justice central themes of their lives.

As I said before, the banquet was a lot like a Seder- we were all extremely hungry by the time we had finished the scripted portion of the night!  Little did the participants know, however, that they would not all enjoy a satiating meal.  Those lucky enough to number among the rich were served heaping piles of spiced lentils, curried tuna fish and spinach salad.  Those who were among the American food insecure had barely palatable dollar store donuts and soda.  The last and most food insecure group ate only rice and drank water from tiny dixie cups.

As I looked around, I noticed an uneasiness had entered the room.  Those who had been served the wholesome meal ate sheepishly, obviously embarrassed that they were only the ones enjoying a full meal.  The others joked about staging an insurrection and taking some of the better food for themselves.

After people had had their fill, I closed the banquet with a question: “What did you learn tonight?”  I didn’t need the students to respond to know the answer: I  had seen it in their faces as they ate.  Hunger and food insecurity had gone from being remote concepts to something present in their minds, in their hearts, and as a taste that had still not left their tongues.

I can only hope that, for some of them, it was a light bulb moment.

Please help turn yourself and your guests into educated advocates for the ending of hunger by taking a moment to read aloud the Fed Up With Hunger Maggid.  Your Seder is an opportunity to spread awareness of the hunger that exists in our community and what can be done about. 

We’ve included a ready-to-print-and-stamp advocacy letter in support of a strong reauthorization of the Child Nutrition Act with our Maggid.   Join Michelle Obama and Scarlett Johansson in their campaign against child hunger and call on Representative George Miller, the Chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, to make the Child Nutrition Act a fiscal priority even during this challenging time for the federal budget.  Preventing hunger-associated malnutrition is one of the most cost-effective ways we can ensure that disadvantaged children have the opportunity to grow up into healthy, productive adults. 

This Passover, bring your celebration of freedom out of the past and into the present by taking action against the modern day Mitzrayim of hunger!

On March 24th, we are partnering with MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger, Progressive Jewish Alliance, Valley Beth Shalom, and Sinai Temple for the First Annual Los Angeles Hunger Seder. 

During the Passover Seder, we open the doors of our homes and invite all who are hungry to come and eat but are we really ready to feed all those hungry people?

The statistics are staggering: about 1 out of every 8 people in Los Angeles is hungry, making us the Hunger Capital of the US.  The number of people in poverty in Los Angeles County is roughly equal to the population of Philadephia, our nation’s 6th most populous city.  Around the world, over 1 billion people suffer from hunger.

Come to the first every LA Hunger Seder on March 24th at VBS at 7:o0 pm to learn about hunger in LA and worldwide and to learn how you can make a difference.  Register here.

All proceeds from the $18 ticket will be donated to The SOVA Community Food and Resource Program of Jewish Family Service. 

It will also be webcast at www.JewishJournal.com

Aaren Alpert is Fed Up With Hunger’s in-house youth outreach pro .  When Aaren heard that the United Synagogue Youth, or USY, needed social action programming for their Valley Beth Shalom weekend teen retreat, she got to work.  Let me tell you something about Aaren– she’s serious when it comes to youth programming.  Not only is she armed with years of personal and professional experience, but her mother is the legendary Merrill Alpert, youth programming maven of Far West United Synagogue Youth.  In other words, this sort of stuff is literally in her blood.  Teaming up with VBS’ Rabbi Noah Farkas and youth directors Alison Bluestein and Tiffany Kosloy, Aaren put her know how to good use and set up a whole Fed Up With Hunger themed weekend!

On Saturday morning, the USY Fed Up With Hunger extravaganza kicked off with over 100 USY’ers crowded into the Valley Beth Shalom youth lounge for a Fed Up With Hunger Banquet.  The Fed Up With Hunger Banquet is a scripted meal conducted a lot like a Passover Seder, but, instead of telling the story of the Israelites flight from Egypt, the banquet explores the character of food insecurity in the world at large and our own communities.   The USY’ers were challenged as the more economically fortunate to realize how difficult it is for needy individuals and families to afford fresh, healthful food.  We were really impressed with the lively extended conversation the banquet provoked, especially considering the banquet was holding up their lunch!

After taking a break on Saturday for Shabbat and the obligatory DJ’ed dance, the USY’ers got back to it on Sunday morning with a workshop which had them budget for a week’s worth of groceries on a food insecure household’s income.  Even with food stamps, soup kitchens and food pantries to rely on, the USY’ers realized that eating healthfully on a strapped food budget is nearly impossible.  The numbers are demoralizing: the price differential between a nutritionally poor and healthful diet amounts to several hundred dollars per week for a family of four.  The workshop is frustrating by design, as the point is to demonstrate how the food insecure eat poorly as a matter of necessity.

Once the USY’ers were sufficiently fed up with hunger (we can’t resist that pun around here), they rolled up their sleeves and got hands on with their Tikkun Olam.  They split up into groups and worked on a bevy of different projects: potato boxes planters for VBS’ community garden were built, lasagnas were made for a local homeless shelter, food was sorted for the VBS food pantry and nearly one hundred pounds of food donations were collected from Ralph’s.  Some of the more theatrically inclined USY’ers put together video PSA’s about hunger to post on their Facebook pages and other social media.  All in all, were completely impressed by the enthusiastic response we got.  The USY’ers learned about hunger, they took action against hunger and they made the fight to end hunger their own.

After the program was over, we asked Adam Braun, one of the USY teen leaders responsible for running the kinnus, how the weekend impacted him.  He said that “For me, it was an experience to be treasured and it has inspired me to take future action because I know that, even though I may just be one adolescent teenager, I can make a difference.”  That’s right Adam- you can!  And together, we can do so much more.  Thank you USY for taking a stand against hunger in Los Angeles!

Show Details:
Wednesday, December 9, 2009 (the minus-third night of Hanukkah)
Doors at 7:30 pm, show at 8:30 pm
@ Largo at the Coronet
366 N. La Cienega Boulevard
West Hollywood, CA

$$Buy tickets at the box office, online at www.largo-la.com, or by calling (310) 855-0350.

Bonus
Bring a couple cans of food to the show and help feed the hungry this holiday season! It’ll make you feel good. All donations will go toward Fed Up With Hunger.

Show Notes
L.A. is in the midst of a hunger crisis, with over 1.25 million people in LA County, mostly children and the elderly, struggling to get enough to eat. As part of their “Blueprint to End Hunger”, the Jewish Federation and its Fed Up With Hunger partners are calling on elected officials to declare Los Angeles a “hunger-free community.” Patt talks with them about their three part plan to eradicate hunger, how LA county can help and whether ending hunger is an economically feasible goal given the city’s dire financial straits.

Guests:
Andrew Cushnir, associate executive vice president of the Jewish Federation
Zev Yaroslavsky, LA County Supervisor

By Stephanie Howard
Program Coordinator for Feeding the Hungry

400 volunteers packing 35,000 meals in one afternoon…talk about being Fed Up With Hunger!