Hunger Symposium: Panel C Domestic Problems to end malnutrition - Part 2

Side 1

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Thank you, Viola.

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There's a tremendous advantage to being the last speaker in a

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panel.

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You can listen to all the points that went ahead and then make

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some all kinds of points yourself.

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There's also one danger, of course.

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Somebody else may have given your speech, and I don't know if that's happened or not.

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I certainly hope not.

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Mary Ellen Lloyd is the chairperson of the Hunger Task Force of the Trinity

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Presbyterian Synod.

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And I'd like her to wrap up this panel part at this point.

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Marilyn.

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I'm glad he said it before I did.

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When you are the fourth person in the panel,

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you begin to check off your points that

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have already been said.

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But there are a few left, and I want to talk about them.

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This morning, I was not here at the Congress

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because there was something going on in my own community

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that I thought was very important

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and really define to me what the Eucharistic Congress is

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all about.

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You know from my introduction that I'm

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United Presbyterian.

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This morning, one of the churches in our neighborhood

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opened their vacation church school.

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And there were a number of community youngsters there.

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And they said, the leaders of the school said to me,

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we want to encourage the youngsters again

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to give to the emergency food cupboards,

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either actual food or money.

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Would you come down and talk about hunger problems

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around the world and hunger problems in our own community.

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And it gave me a wonderful opportunity

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to share with those children from three years old

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through sixth grade, though I even

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saw one that was about four months old,

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but I'm not sure how much they were really

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receiving of what we were saying.

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But they could at least see the colors

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on some of the cans of food we were talking about.

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But the joy and what I had to say to them

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was that in our different sense, we can care for humanity.

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It doesn't matter whether we're a Catholic, or a Protestant,

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or a Jew.

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We all are people who are children of God

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who need to be cared for.

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And we need to care for each other.

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And I was able to say that and point to three community

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cupboards within walking distance for all

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of those children from that church

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so they could understand what I meant

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and in the geography of Germantown.

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We have an emergency food cupboard

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at St. Vincent's Catholic Church in Germantown,

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which is on the east side of our section of the city.

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We have another emergency food cupboard

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in a home in South Germantown.

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And the home has a Presbyterian mother

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and an Episcopalian father.

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And they both have been very active in their two churches.

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And then we have another emergency food cupboard

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on the west side of Germantown Avenue,

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which is the Afro-American Distress Center cupboard.

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And it cares for all the people on that particular side

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of Germantown Avenue.

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One, a secular group that is caring.

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Another, a church group that is very obviously caring.

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And another, committed Christians in their home

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and caring.

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And this, to me, is what the Eucharistic Congress

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all about and why we as Protestants and members of other faiths have been invited by the Catholics

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to take part.

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Because in our differences we have to transcend our human need and we have to know what that

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human need is.

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Our differences are good and are beautiful and our freedom to choose how we express our

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witness to God is very important.

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But when that supersedes our concerns for humanity,

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and we cannot discard whether we are Catholic or Protestant

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or Jew and care for each other as human beings,

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then we internalize evil.

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And we perpetuate the sin that occurred in the garden,

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whether it is a symbolic garden or a garden

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that you believe very wholeheartedly in in Genesis.

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And that evil goes on and on, and programs

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do not get to people.

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And we have starvation and malnutrition,

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and we wonder what the church is doing.

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And that brings me then to the second thing

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I want to say to you.

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I'm in the middle years of my life,

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and I have become in the last two years

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an elder in the United Presbyterian Church, which

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gives me a little bit more power than I had before.

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Not much, but just a tiny bit.

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Occasionally, I can go into the church body

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and stand on my two feet and ask some questions

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and be recognized as one of the voting members of that church,

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because we do not have very many female clergy.

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But I can assure you that that percentage is growing

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in the United Presbyterians.

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But as women, our growth as being elders is also climbing.

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And we have not had as many women elders

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and as many women in the decision process of our church.

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And so I felt that power.

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And the reason why I wanted it and was

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willing to take it when it was offered to me

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was the fact that I could show a greater concern for hunger.

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In 1969 and 1970, United Presbyterian Women

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in this area in Philadelphia banded together

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in what they called a hunger task force.

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And we began to visit the public school

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principals in this city to discover why they didn't have

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lunch programs.

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And by coalescing with a group from the Welfare Rights

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Organization that were introduced to us

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through one of our Presbyterian churches in North Philadelphia

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and with other groups, we were able to push

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the Board of Education at that time

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to expand the lunch program in the city

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to extend it to 20 very low-income schools

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in the city.

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And that was just the beginning, because it was after that

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that the Welfare Rights Organization created

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and saw through to its finish two particular lawsuits

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in this city in relation to the legal rights services,

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community legal services, rather,

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that helped them create a lunch program in all the Philadelphia

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public schools, and as you heard Viola

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say a few minutes ago, a breakfast program in the Title

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I schools of the city.

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And why do we have to have court suits to create feeding programs?

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And where was the church when we knew that Philadelphia County

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housed 43% of Pennsylvania's low-income people?

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But this, again, is one of the great things about being an elder or a

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witnessing person in the church.

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Wherever we may be, whether we're elders or not, just because we say that we

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believe in Jesus Christ and show our witness, that says to us we've got to have a greater

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discipline of who we are and why we are.

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We've got to begin to read laws with a fine eye.

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We've got to live as if creating food programs and sharing food with others is a commitment

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that is deep and is our true witness.

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And that means that we've got to be a lot more alert than we've ever been before.

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And if we've never been hungry, we have a very insensitive reaction to other people's

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hunger.

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We go along day after day thinking somebody else is taking care of it, and yet we say

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our prayers and we come to church and we give our money and we expect a good funeral and

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a nice place for a beautiful wedding and a lovely baptism for our children, but don't

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ask us to put our life on the line when it comes to expanding a food program.

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That's where we've got to change.

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where we have to take our risks.

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There's where we become food advocates.

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And that's for all of us to do, regardless

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of what denomination or what faith we believe in.

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Let's take some examples here in Philadelphia

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that are occurring right now.

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A couple of years ago, the city health department

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applied for a WIC proposal, or applied for funds

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through a proposal for the Women, Infants, and Children

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special supplementary feeding program for the city, which

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meant that pregnant women and children under four at that

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time could receive vouchers for food from their city health

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clinics and go to a grocery store and get certain kinds of

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food to enhance their caloric intake and their balanced diet

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in a better way. And that food would be free. The monies from

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the federal government would be channeled through the state to

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pay the grocery store for the kinds of foods that were given

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on a food prescription to that mother and family

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at the health clinic.

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The program began in one of our youth projects

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from the Jefferson Hospital.

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This was not the city health proposal.

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It took a much longer time to be funded.

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As the months went by and gradually the years,

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a proposal for 15,000 participants in the WIC program

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was granted by the federal government.

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In April of this year, when 15,000 participants

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should have been credited and already enrolled,

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the city health department only had 5,000 participants

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in the program.

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Yet the city health department had written the proposal.

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Where was the church?

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Where was you?

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Where were you, rather?

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Where was I?

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How are we coalescing to care for the hungry in the city?

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A hunger that endangers a child for the rest of their lives,

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A child whose brain damage can create the lack of motivation

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to learn a skill that will provide

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a job for the rest of his life.

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And our tax dollars would have been used well.

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Now, just recently, more monies have been

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released for the WIC program.

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And across the United States, 185,000 more participants

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will be given money to participate in these programs.

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But this is where you and I have to know

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what's going on in our cities, what the fine print is,

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to understand what poor people need and want.

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Let's take a second instance.

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You've already heard the food stamp program spoken of

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by some of the other panelists.

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What is a concern with that food stamp program?

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Regulations that have been blocked at this present time

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in the United States District of Columbia

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were going to take some 8 million people from the program.

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But there are millions of people not on that program,

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simply because there's a purchase requirement for stamps.

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And we haven't coalesced enough under the Bread

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for the World directives to realize

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that we, as witnessing Christians and Jews,

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can make changes in that legislation

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if we use enough power with the legislators

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at the federal level.

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A purchase requirement which takes money away

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from rent money and clothing money,

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so that you have to pay so much for your food stamps in order

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to get your bonus stamps.

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And the bonus stamps should come just

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as a part of the need at the base income of which they're

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released.

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Where was the church, and where were you and me?

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These are the kinds of things that I

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think come to us as a commitment in a Eucharistic Congress

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to say, I am concerned about these things,

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and I am going to be more alert, and I am not going to sit back.

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The Trinity Synod Hunger Task Force

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happens to be a group of people that

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branch throughout the state of Pennsylvania

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and a small portion of West Virginia and Ohio.

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What we've been trying to do is to relate

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to each other in our various congressional districts

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with our kinds of resources of prayer and of study

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so that we can begin to alert ourselves and relate

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to the poor people of need in those areas

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particularly to form the kinds of networks of concern

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and then blend from that United Presbyterian base into the wheat

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concern that Mrs. Young has already spoken of.

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World hunger, education, and action together

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so that we join in a Eucharistic way

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and join hands together for the human need that

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is so important.

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Let me say some more things very quickly.

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I imagine all of our denominations

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and all of our faith have had some kind of basic statement

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to say about abortion.

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It was very important.

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It was life and death.

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But the life and death that walks on the major city

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streets in the form of malnutrition,

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no church is making any kind of statement

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that the press is picking up and really using in their headlines.

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Malnutrition is a slow, cruel kind of destruction.

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It forces us to buy all kinds of medicines.

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It forces us to do without some of the kinds of foods

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that we do not eat because we don't

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know that we should eat them.

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And I sit here looking at one of the members in the audience

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and remembering that one of the things I ought to be saying

259
00:13:14,200 --> 00:13:17,480
right now is if the church were really out there doing what it

260
00:13:17,480 --> 00:13:20,900
should, we should be going to all of the state departments

261
00:13:20,900 --> 00:13:23,480
of education and requiring that all of our school teachers

262
00:13:23,480 --> 00:13:25,620
have some training in nutrition.

263
00:13:25,620 --> 00:13:27,780
And we'd be going to all of our medical schools

264
00:13:27,780 --> 00:13:30,220
and demanding that all of our doctors

265
00:13:30,220 --> 00:13:31,580
be trained in nutrition.

266
00:13:31,580 --> 00:13:34,540
But we've not done those two things either.

267
00:13:34,540 --> 00:13:38,460
And so there are a lot of pieces of the witness

268
00:13:38,460 --> 00:13:43,580
that we say when we give money or when

269
00:13:43,580 --> 00:13:47,060
we talk about various kinds of concerns

270
00:13:47,060 --> 00:13:48,220
that we're really sharing.

271
00:13:48,220 --> 00:13:50,980
But we're not getting down to where the actual power

272
00:13:50,980 --> 00:13:53,300
structure is, where we can really

273
00:13:53,300 --> 00:13:56,180
make changes in what's going on with food programs.

274
00:13:56,180 --> 00:13:58,940
And that takes intense homework.

275
00:13:58,940 --> 00:14:01,800
And it takes people involved from our churches

276
00:14:01,800 --> 00:14:05,920
and from secular life that will tell us what to look for,

277
00:14:05,920 --> 00:14:08,720
because they are surviving by the obedience

278
00:14:08,720 --> 00:14:12,860
to certain kinds of regulations that we have in our laws.

279
00:14:12,860 --> 00:14:15,020
And this was one of the things that the Philadelphia

280
00:14:15,020 --> 00:14:17,760
Nutrition Council taught me.

281
00:14:17,760 --> 00:14:21,120
I had been a woman of the church for years,

282
00:14:21,120 --> 00:14:24,920
and it wasn't until I got into a secular organization that

283
00:14:24,920 --> 00:14:27,900
dealt with committed people of other face,

284
00:14:27,900 --> 00:14:30,700
as well as committed people in professions

285
00:14:30,700 --> 00:14:35,920
such as nutrition and medicine and in community organization,

286
00:14:35,920 --> 00:14:42,100
that I began to slowly develop the skills of reading laws,

287
00:14:42,100 --> 00:14:44,660
the skills of reading regulations,

288
00:14:44,660 --> 00:14:48,700
the skills of knowing where the power cliches are that

289
00:14:48,700 --> 00:14:51,900
take that money for salary instead of for food.

290
00:14:51,900 --> 00:14:55,780
And I began to learn a new kind of survival technique

291
00:14:55,780 --> 00:14:59,520
that I had not been sharp enough in my own United Presbyterian

292
00:14:59,520 --> 00:15:00,940
Church to discover.

293
00:15:00,940 --> 00:15:03,360
But those things in the last five or six years

294
00:15:03,360 --> 00:15:05,220
have been changing.

295
00:15:05,220 --> 00:15:07,620
And I sometimes thank God for the inflation

296
00:15:07,620 --> 00:15:09,620
that has hit us all, because once we got hit

297
00:15:09,620 --> 00:15:10,980
in the pocketbook, all of a sudden,

298
00:15:10,980 --> 00:15:13,060
it's much more important to know what we're eating

299
00:15:13,060 --> 00:15:15,100
and what we're paying for, and how much of it's

300
00:15:15,100 --> 00:15:16,500
going to come across the counter.

301
00:15:16,500 --> 00:15:18,300
Not the money, I mean the food, and how much

302
00:15:18,300 --> 00:15:20,220
we're going to have to put across the counter

303
00:15:20,220 --> 00:15:22,540
to pay for it.

304
00:15:22,540 --> 00:15:25,280
Even in the evilness of inflation to all of us,

305
00:15:25,280 --> 00:15:30,400
some good has come because it's caused us to study and to be more alert as to what is

306
00:15:30,400 --> 00:15:33,920
going on.

307
00:15:33,920 --> 00:15:43,160
When we come to the ends of our lives, I feel sure that the personhood of God is not going

308
00:15:43,160 --> 00:15:48,600
to ask you and me whether we're a Catholic or a Presbyterian or a Jew.

309
00:15:48,600 --> 00:15:55,540
But God is going to say, what did you do with your life to care for each other?

310
00:15:55,540 --> 00:16:09,600
And that's what I'd like to leave with you.

311
00:16:09,600 --> 00:16:11,420
Thank you, Mary Ellen.

312
00:16:11,420 --> 00:16:14,340
You've all waited very patiently, though they certainly were exceptional speeches.

313
00:16:14,340 --> 00:16:17,100
I can understand why you were so patient.

314
00:16:17,100 --> 00:16:18,300
We have a little bit of time left.

315
00:16:18,300 --> 00:16:21,420
I think I'd like to throw it open immediately for questions

316
00:16:21,420 --> 00:16:22,220
to the audience.

317
00:16:22,220 --> 00:16:23,500
So may I do that?

318
00:16:31,460 --> 00:16:34,540
Yes.

319
00:16:34,540 --> 00:16:35,040
Yes.

320
00:16:35,040 --> 00:16:38,420
I don't have any professional interest in hunger.

321
00:16:38,420 --> 00:16:39,700
I'm just an ordinary person.

322
00:16:39,700 --> 00:16:42,340
But what can I, or what benefit will I

323
00:16:42,340 --> 00:16:45,860
have from this meeting, from these meetings,

324
00:16:45,860 --> 00:16:50,860
to do something, you know, as a, not part of my life,

325
00:16:51,300 --> 00:16:52,560
but just what can I do?

326
00:16:56,060 --> 00:16:59,940
The question is, what can a person who's not a professional

327
00:16:59,940 --> 00:17:03,340
without any qualifications do?

328
00:17:04,660 --> 00:17:06,820
The first thing you have to do is,

329
00:17:06,820 --> 00:17:11,820
and I forget who said this, paraphrased Mother Teresa.

330
00:17:12,060 --> 00:17:13,900
Look around the neighborhood.

331
00:17:13,900 --> 00:17:15,180
Look around the neighborhood.

332
00:17:15,180 --> 00:17:19,060
You live in a neighborhood, and in any neighborhood,

333
00:17:19,060 --> 00:17:21,600
you're gonna find somebody who needs something.

334
00:17:23,020 --> 00:17:28,020
Okay, somebody, elderly people, shut in elderly.

335
00:17:30,180 --> 00:17:35,180
Okay, you have a school, children go to school.

336
00:17:35,660 --> 00:17:38,700
Does the school have a proper school lunch

337
00:17:38,700 --> 00:17:40,220
and school breakfast program?

338
00:17:40,220 --> 00:17:42,500
Does it have a special milk program?

339
00:17:42,500 --> 00:17:44,560
Does it know of these things?

340
00:17:44,560 --> 00:17:47,280
Are there elderly people around?

341
00:17:47,280 --> 00:17:48,240
Do you know of them?

342
00:17:48,240 --> 00:17:49,240
Do your neighbors know of them?

343
00:17:49,240 --> 00:17:51,400
Does the church know of them?

344
00:17:51,400 --> 00:17:54,640
Churches are a great place to find elderly people

345
00:17:54,640 --> 00:17:58,760
who are getting by on faith alone.

346
00:17:58,760 --> 00:18:02,520
And sometimes it's, you know, the local clergyman

347
00:18:02,520 --> 00:18:04,880
knows some of them who are suffering,

348
00:18:04,880 --> 00:18:06,300
who can't get out anymore.

349
00:18:07,960 --> 00:18:11,640
Whether or not, now just talking in terms of food programs,

350
00:18:11,640 --> 00:18:18,440
There are a number of elderly feeding programs,

351
00:18:18,440 --> 00:18:20,240
the easiest of which is something

352
00:18:20,240 --> 00:18:25,320
called Aid for Friends, which is up in Northeast Philadelphia.

353
00:18:25,320 --> 00:18:28,560
It's basically freezing a meal.

354
00:18:28,560 --> 00:18:30,360
You make a meal.

355
00:18:30,360 --> 00:18:32,280
You make your own meal, your family's meal.

356
00:18:32,280 --> 00:18:33,280
You freeze an extra one.

357
00:18:33,280 --> 00:18:34,480
Put it in the freezer.

358
00:18:34,480 --> 00:18:37,200
When you've got enough of them, take them over to somebody

359
00:18:37,200 --> 00:18:39,720
who needs them and can't make them for themselves.

360
00:18:39,720 --> 00:18:41,000
Put them in their refrigerator.

361
00:18:41,000 --> 00:18:42,700
That's a terribly simple thing to do.

362
00:18:42,700 --> 00:18:44,400
It, of course, can be very well organized,

363
00:18:44,400 --> 00:18:46,440
but that's a terribly simple thing to do.

364
00:18:48,080 --> 00:18:50,880
Follow the legislation, read it in the newspapers,

365
00:18:50,880 --> 00:18:53,040
take an interest in what's going on in Congress.

366
00:18:53,040 --> 00:18:54,880
It's in the newspapers, you've got to dig it out.

367
00:18:54,880 --> 00:18:56,560
It's in the back of the newspapers sometimes,

368
00:18:56,560 --> 00:18:58,720
but it's there, it really is.

369
00:18:58,720 --> 00:19:01,560
But you just need your eyes sort of opened up

370
00:19:01,560 --> 00:19:06,560
and just say, well, and then write to Schweiker or Scott,

371
00:19:06,780 --> 00:19:09,280
or your senator wherever you come from,

372
00:19:09,280 --> 00:19:13,820
or green or any of these people right now with a stake in things.

373
00:19:13,880 --> 00:19:16,240
I mean, Schweik has got a big stake in things right now. Right.

374
00:19:16,240 --> 00:19:19,920
And he's our local guy and, and green's running for his seat. No,

375
00:19:19,920 --> 00:19:23,400
green's running for Scott's seat. Right. So no party. No party.

376
00:19:23,440 --> 00:19:27,720
Well, I'm just saying that this is the reality of the situation. Okay.

377
00:19:27,720 --> 00:19:29,920
And this is how you get things done in our society,

378
00:19:29,920 --> 00:19:31,520
because it is a government of the people.

379
00:19:31,520 --> 00:19:34,240
As somebody said this morning for the people and by the people,

380
00:19:35,400 --> 00:19:37,160
that's what you can do. And it's not,

381
00:19:37,160 --> 00:19:40,500
Don't expect that you're going to be like Mother Teresa,

382
00:19:40,500 --> 00:19:44,080
going out and pulling up a person from the gutter

383
00:19:44,080 --> 00:19:46,700
and pouring milk into their mouth, okay?

384
00:19:46,700 --> 00:19:48,640
Hunger in the United States is not like that.

385
00:19:48,640 --> 00:19:51,220
It's hard, it's like, it's stuffing envelopes.

386
00:19:51,220 --> 00:19:52,760
It's doing budgets.

387
00:19:52,760 --> 00:19:55,820
It's late at night trucking mules across the city

388
00:19:55,820 --> 00:19:57,580
from one point to another.

389
00:19:57,580 --> 00:20:01,520
It's standing in front of a church collecting cans.

390
00:20:01,520 --> 00:20:03,580
It's getting those cans from that church

391
00:20:03,580 --> 00:20:05,820
to a distribution center, okay?

392
00:20:05,820 --> 00:20:08,060
It's staffing that emergency distribution center.

393
00:20:08,200 --> 00:20:12,860
It's all, it's a hard slog.

394
00:20:13,320 --> 00:20:16,180
But the essential thing is to find

395
00:20:16,180 --> 00:20:17,880
out what's going on in your community.

396
00:20:18,120 --> 00:20:19,640
And I think, anybody else?

397
00:20:20,300 --> 00:20:23,020
I would just simply add a meeting.

398
00:20:23,020 --> 00:20:25,980
The Warfare Rights Organization, we just began

399
00:20:25,980 --> 00:20:27,340
by meeting in our kitchens.

400
00:20:27,760 --> 00:20:31,480
Just, you know, trying to think of some way

401
00:20:31,480 --> 00:20:35,220
to make the situation better for our children to get education

402
00:20:35,220 --> 00:20:41,420
because we knew that that was the answer and that they would not wind up on welfare to put an end to welfare.

403
00:20:41,420 --> 00:20:47,220
You can just start meeting with three or four sincere Christian people

404
00:20:47,220 --> 00:20:53,020
who are intending to do what Christ would have them to do and watch it grow

405
00:20:53,020 --> 00:20:56,820
and do all the things that Temple has said, you know, the education.

406
00:20:56,820 --> 00:21:03,620
You get yourself educated, well-informed, and well-organized as Christians

407
00:21:03,620 --> 00:21:06,620
And then there is nothing that you cannot do.

408
00:21:06,620 --> 00:21:09,960
It will grow because you are doing what God wants,

409
00:21:09,960 --> 00:21:14,200
and nothing stops God's growth.

410
00:21:14,200 --> 00:21:19,000
If I may add one more thing, Father Arrupe,

411
00:21:19,000 --> 00:21:22,340
the black pope who spoke this morning,

412
00:21:22,340 --> 00:21:28,440
mentioned the fasting as a prerequisite

413
00:21:28,440 --> 00:21:30,420
to taking the Eucharist.

414
00:21:30,420 --> 00:21:36,420
and for using that money saved in that fast for the poor.

415
00:21:36,420 --> 00:21:42,340
It always seems to me a real shame that the Operation Rice Bowl stopped.

416
00:21:42,340 --> 00:21:49,700
And if people of goodwill could fast once again on Fridays, which is a traditional fast day,

417
00:21:49,700 --> 00:21:54,820
and save that money and contribute that money,

418
00:21:54,820 --> 00:22:03,540
cash, it takes cash, food is terribly expensive, to some effort, and there are many, you've

419
00:22:03,540 --> 00:22:09,580
heard a number of them, crop and wheat and Catholic Relief Services, there are many,

420
00:22:09,580 --> 00:22:20,340
very simple to do. That would be a way, and is that the Secretary General of the Catholic

421
00:22:20,340 --> 00:22:25,020
Conference of Bishops pointed out that we need fasting.

422
00:22:25,020 --> 00:22:26,900
We need legislative.

423
00:22:26,900 --> 00:22:29,340
There are three things, and one of them was fasting.

424
00:22:29,340 --> 00:22:31,500
There's a very simple thing that people can do,

425
00:22:31,500 --> 00:22:33,500
very, very simple.

426
00:22:33,500 --> 00:22:37,380
And that will help you think about the problem,

427
00:22:37,380 --> 00:22:40,980
help it keep it up into your mind.

428
00:22:40,980 --> 00:22:44,900
We are very concerned about what happens to our money.

429
00:22:44,900 --> 00:22:48,220
When you hand that money in to an organization,

430
00:22:48,220 --> 00:22:50,700
you will learn a little bit more about that organization.

431
00:22:50,700 --> 00:22:53,140
It will help you get involved.

432
00:22:53,140 --> 00:22:56,220
So that's another very, very practical thing.

433
00:22:56,220 --> 00:22:57,740
There's a question right here.

434
00:22:57,740 --> 00:23:00,820
Yes, back there.

435
00:23:00,820 --> 00:23:03,940
How is it, it seems like, the Catholic Church

436
00:23:03,940 --> 00:23:06,500
isn't open to new methods.

437
00:23:06,500 --> 00:23:09,660
Like, we have a lot of nitrogen forming,

438
00:23:09,660 --> 00:23:11,980
and we have depletion of soil.

439
00:23:11,980 --> 00:23:16,380
We don't have organic gardening or composting.

440
00:23:16,380 --> 00:23:19,580
And also, we have many junk foods on the market.

441
00:23:19,580 --> 00:23:22,980
In fact, I think it's CBS Channel 3

442
00:23:22,980 --> 00:23:25,900
is having a discussion on whether cancer producing,

443
00:23:25,900 --> 00:23:27,400
the foods that we have on the market

444
00:23:27,400 --> 00:23:30,100
are actually producing cancer because of all the additives

445
00:23:30,100 --> 00:23:31,700
that they have in the food.

446
00:23:31,700 --> 00:23:35,420
Yet, and also, as Francis LePay, who wrote a book,

447
00:23:35,420 --> 00:23:38,140
Died From a Small Planet, where we should tend

448
00:23:38,140 --> 00:23:41,220
toward a vegetarian diet instead of a meat diet, which

449
00:23:41,220 --> 00:23:45,620
has shown to not be really good for your health anyway.

450
00:23:45,620 --> 00:23:49,460
It seems like we've accepted the standards of the nutrition

451
00:23:49,460 --> 00:23:52,040
where there aren't any medical schools that have any nutrition

452
00:23:52,040 --> 00:23:53,260
taught in them.

453
00:23:53,260 --> 00:23:55,580
And we've accepted, without challenging or questioning

454
00:23:55,580 --> 00:23:58,060
them and doing anything about them.

455
00:23:58,060 --> 00:24:02,100
I said, what does the panel suggest we do?

456
00:24:02,100 --> 00:24:03,580
Anyone?

457
00:24:03,580 --> 00:24:09,460
Well, since I'm the Catholic on the panel, all I can do

458
00:24:09,460 --> 00:24:12,380
is speak from my experience.

459
00:24:12,380 --> 00:24:14,420
I direct the nutritional development services

460
00:24:14,420 --> 00:24:16,220
of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

461
00:24:17,660 --> 00:24:22,660
That is a unique agency in the country, I think.

462
00:24:23,460 --> 00:24:28,460
It develops people nutritionally in the sense of,

463
00:24:28,540 --> 00:24:31,420
the Pope speaks of the development of the peoples,

464
00:24:31,420 --> 00:24:33,700
from the less to the more.

465
00:24:34,940 --> 00:24:39,860
First, it is important that people get enough to eat.

466
00:24:41,540 --> 00:24:43,260
I'm not sure if that's really first,

467
00:24:43,260 --> 00:24:46,300
but they should get enough of the right things to eat.

468
00:24:46,300 --> 00:24:48,840
One of the ways we have found this in the inner city

469
00:24:48,840 --> 00:24:52,880
is to help people to buy wisely.

470
00:24:52,880 --> 00:24:55,420
And one of those ways that they buy wisely

471
00:24:55,420 --> 00:25:00,420
is through buying foods that are less processed, costless.

472
00:25:03,500 --> 00:25:08,500
Don't buy pudding, no, not pudding, stuffing mix.

473
00:25:10,940 --> 00:25:13,140
I mean, pre-made stuffing mix.

474
00:25:13,140 --> 00:25:19,980
Well, anyway, the other thing is to get people together

475
00:25:19,980 --> 00:25:23,860
in cooperatives, food co-ops, where they can

476
00:25:23,860 --> 00:25:26,540
buy fresh fruit and vegetables.

477
00:25:26,540 --> 00:25:29,660
Catholic Church in Philadelphia and Catholic Church in Chicago,

478
00:25:29,660 --> 00:25:32,460
I believe, and I'm not sure just the relationship

479
00:25:32,460 --> 00:25:33,900
of the Catholic Church in Chicago

480
00:25:33,900 --> 00:25:36,660
to their cooperative movement.

481
00:25:36,660 --> 00:25:38,500
The church puts a lot of money into developing

482
00:25:38,500 --> 00:25:42,100
these co-ops in the inner city.

483
00:25:42,100 --> 00:25:46,820
and for any who want it, but primarily for poor people.

484
00:25:50,060 --> 00:25:55,300
Inner city vegetable gardens, not a big thing in my agency,

485
00:25:55,300 --> 00:26:00,980
but we have started a few.

486
00:26:00,980 --> 00:26:05,720
So the church, at least in Philadelphia,

487
00:26:05,720 --> 00:26:08,180
is doing something with regard to that.

488
00:26:08,180 --> 00:26:18,180
Generally speaking, the poor don't, as Viola has drummed into me on numerous occasions,

489
00:26:18,180 --> 00:26:22,180
don't like to be told how to eat and what to eat.

490
00:26:22,180 --> 00:26:27,180
They know well enough. They've done it much longer than I have.

491
00:26:27,180 --> 00:26:34,180
So it is a question of reacting to the poor's needs.

492
00:26:34,180 --> 00:26:37,180
What do they want? The poor comes to us.

493
00:26:37,180 --> 00:26:42,020
I'm not going to go to a poor person, and my agency would not,

494
00:26:42,020 --> 00:26:48,340
go into a poor place and say, you cannot buy Campbell's soup.

495
00:26:48,340 --> 00:26:50,380
You've got to buy the private label.

496
00:26:50,380 --> 00:26:53,520
Or in our co-ops, we are not going to say,

497
00:26:53,520 --> 00:26:55,420
we are not going to sell, let's say,

498
00:26:55,420 --> 00:26:57,220
and I don't say we do sell Campbell's soup,

499
00:26:57,220 --> 00:26:59,780
but I'm just saying that it's a very good thing.

500
00:26:59,780 --> 00:27:03,540
But we would buy a private label.

501
00:27:03,540 --> 00:27:06,640
The people have to have the choice.

502
00:27:06,640 --> 00:27:07,720
So that's one thing.

503
00:27:07,720 --> 00:27:10,060
I mean, it is a choice for people to have.

504
00:27:10,060 --> 00:27:14,320
If the people want it, and they are wanting it more now,

505
00:27:14,320 --> 00:27:17,620
then we make the information and the assistance necessary

506
00:27:18,720 --> 00:27:20,720
available to the people.

507
00:27:20,720 --> 00:27:25,720
I don't think I heard him answer what you asked him.

508
00:27:26,640 --> 00:27:28,760
Okay, well, what was, lay it on me again.

509
00:27:28,760 --> 00:27:31,360
If I would try to answer you as a poor person,

Side 2

1
00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:11,800
I would try this way. I had an opportunity to go south for the first time in my life

2
00:00:11,800 --> 00:00:17,560
and that's probably as far as I'll ever get. That was it. And I learned that there was

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a lot of vacant farmland down there where people do not use the farmland. And do I understand

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that you're trying to say to me, rich or poor,

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we all know potatoes are good, and we

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know vegetables are good for us.

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But I think what you're saying is that as a nation,

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we are poisoning our food so badly that, well,

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I know it's good or not.

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It's not good because it's poison.

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And when I eat it, I'm going to get all kinds of things.

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We have Rodel, which is a magazine, Rodel magazine,

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prevention, prevention magazine.

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And also, our depletion of our trace minerals

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because of the fact we don't do composting.

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So even whatever food we do get has less nutrients,

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which are very important for nutritional health.

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When you get quantity and bulk in food,

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it doesn't mean it's more or less nutritious.

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And then not only that, we're over-chemicalizing foods,

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which many of the chemicals on them are carcinogenic.

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Let me assure you, no poor person uses

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that already stuffed stuff mix.

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We don't believe it.

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We don't drink oyster soup.

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We can't understand.

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We're coming here.

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I'm looking for organically grown foods that

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don't use all the chemicalization to kill insects.

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It seems like there are, and also this Francis LePay

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wrote, Die from a Small Planet, combining

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different kinds of grains and getting

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the max amount of protein.

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Because you only need eight amino acids in your body.

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And if you combine different types of grains,

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if you raise the amino acid to one that's less,

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your food will be a higher level as far as protein.

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Now, I don't want to get into too much food science

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if we can't all.

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Let me just answer that one way.

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In Operation Rice Bowl, very poorly and inexpertly,

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unexpertly, the church tried to come up with minimal meals.

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if that can be continued, as Father Ruppe mentioned

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this morning, and the Church can give guidance,

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which I think it is coming around to,

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and it's coming around to your point,

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for what people could eat for a minimum meal.

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The Church can give guidance as to what a, for fasting.

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I'd like to strike another answer at that.

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What's being lifted up here is the complexity of the food

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problem and the fact that decisions are being made

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every day for all of us, not just the poor, but for all of us

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about our food habits.

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We've made some of them.

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We now, instead of three square meals a day,

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have, I think it's estimated, 20 food contacts a day.

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And if you go through the day of your family

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and add them all up, that's probably

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what you'll be having.

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And most of them are not nutritious.

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And it does indicate that nutrition research,

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nutrition education is one piece of what we have to be about.

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But I think the problem is bigger

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when you're talking about the adulterated foods

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that we are getting.

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And that is the whole agribusiness industry.

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And the decisions that are being made for us

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are in the hands of a few people who are not interested in food,

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but in profit.

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And therefore, you need to be raising

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those kinds of questions.

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Part of the information that you need

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is an understanding of that, like Jim Hightower's book

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or any others that are available.

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And then you need to not only begin

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to exercise citizen power, but corporate power.

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Because we also have power over the corporations,

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as consumers and as stockholders and as power on the legislation

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to control the industries.

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And so the person over here that asked, you know, what can I do?

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Well, you can take the hunger action agenda and find out what you can do

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about a few domestic food programs.

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But believe you me, the first thing we all have to do is study, study, study, study this issue.

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Study it together.

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Begin to read the articles that you normally don't read.

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Listen to the programs.

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One of the best educations I know is to turn on the farm broadcast on the radio.

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I've learned an awful lot about what's going on by beginning to listen to those programs.

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And once you begin to study the problem, the question of what can I do will not be the problem,

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but how do I sort out what is my priority?

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I think there's a question here for quite a while.

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I think the writing is pretty short on time, but I'd like to ask the panel one question.

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Besides the Bible first, the biggest thing I heard in the panel was food stamps.

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I'd like to ask each panelist in turn, in 25 words or less,

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00:05:13,380 --> 00:05:19,380
what one thing would you do to change the present food stamp program, or to improve the present food stamp program?

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00:05:19,380 --> 00:05:24,380
Well, I said, I think in my speech, was to eliminate the purchase requirement,

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so that the people who really need food stamps will be able to have them?

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00:05:31,380 --> 00:05:35,940
I would say there should be no working poor people ought to make enough money

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00:05:35,940 --> 00:05:40,260
they wouldn't have any need for food stamps but since the program is here I

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00:05:40,260 --> 00:05:45,540
would say that the people who have purchased food stamps that we get a

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00:05:45,540 --> 00:05:51,020
larger bonus and that they would be able to buy anything they wanted to buy I

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00:05:51,020 --> 00:05:56,600
I mean, you know the soap the toothpaste the broom they should be able to buy

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What they want to buy with the food stamps that would improve it as it is. I

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00:06:02,820 --> 00:06:08,060
Think it's necessary to say to people who don't know the present food stamps

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00:06:08,860 --> 00:06:11,180
program is going to be changed regardless because

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It is in Congress now in markup and whatever happens it is going to be a very bad program

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The regulations that we withheld by the federal suit were very bad and the legislation is

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going to be very bad. We still must fight for the best that we can get, primarily I

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think to gear up for next year's battle. Because even though we passed a bill in this year's

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Congress, we've got another battle next year and maybe another chance with a new Congress.

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The main thing that I would push for is some kind of legislative mandate that requires

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that the administration be based on the idea that it is a community resource, renewable,

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that people have a right to, and that every effort be made to get people on it and not

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to keep people off.

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00:07:01,420 --> 00:07:06,220
I tend to agree with Viola.

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I think the food stamp program itself is terrible.

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I think that it should be abolished and the money is added to an improved welfare system.

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However, if that is impossible, which it is, then we should do away with the purchase requirement

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and base the food allotment and the cash allotment on a low-cost food plan,

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which should increase the amount by about 25%.

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Thank you so much for your attention.

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And if the master finds a box, it will be mine.

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Thank you.