The United States remains the wealthiest nation in the world according to most indicators, except when it comes to quality of life and social progress, where we don’t even rank in the top ten. The way wealth is distributed and deployed in the United States creates a society in which some have more resources than they need or even want, while others live without adequate access to housing, transportation, education, healthcare or, most shockingly, food. In Texas 1 in 6 households are food insecure. 1 in 5 children, 1 in 4 Latinos, 1 in 3 Black Texans, as well as seniors and rural Texans experience hunger. At the same time, Texans waste millions of tons of food every year.
There are many factors that contribute to food insecurity in Texas and throughout the United States. But if policymakers and elected officials decided there is no excuse for it, the numbers would be going down. Instead, they are increasing more rapidly than ever.
In 2019 Faith Commons brought Jeremy Everett, founder and executive director of the Baylor Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty, to speak in Dallas. We invited leaders from every social sector to listen to him lay out the landscape before engaging in small group conversation about what they were doing to address hunger and how they could work together to do better. Over the past 6 years we have continued to convene these conversations. We were able to contribute to the founding of the Urban Agricuture Initiative, now a project of Restorative Farms and the Southern Dallas Employment Project. We also laid the foundation and are participating in the development of a comprehensive food plan for Dallas, led by Dr. Whitney Strauss.
Now we are cultivating a hands-on approach to addressing food insecurity in neighborhoods and communities most impacted by the reduction or elimination of SNAP benefits, Governor Abbott’s veto of Texas’s Summer EBT program, and changes to the WIC program required by the recent budget bill.
Faith Commons’ approach to hunger solutions requires individuals and groups who wish to provide them to establish partnerships with leaders in communities who are facing hunger. The partners we have convened for years are working together in innovative and generative ways to connect food and food sources to individuals and communities who need them.
Right now our advocacy efforts are paused, but we will post opportunities to lobby your elected officials in person and by phone, email, and social media as bills are brought up in the Texas Legislature and Congress.
