SOMERSET —
The state Secretary of Agriculture wanted to see a show of hands.
“How many people like to eat?” Russell Redding asked, getting a unanimous reply from the 75 people attending the Somerset County Hunger Summit.
“I always get the same response,” he said. Then, Redding broached a larger question: “How many people can eat?”
How to siphon food in a land of plenty to pockets of hunger emerged as a major theme at Friday’s summit.
Redding called on lawmakers to consider policies that deal with problems of food insecurity. More coordination is needed, he said, between producers and the needy populace.
“When you have food, you have many problems. When you don’t have food, you have one problem,” he said, noting that 1.3 million Pennsylvanians rely on food aid every day.
A half-dozen speakers rose to the podium to recite statistics showing the need, and strained financial and manpower resources.
Before the session kicked off, Jeff Masterson, director of the Community Action Partnership of Somerset County, said he encounters two major obstacles that prevent food from getting to where it needs to go.
One is that the needy don’t know where to turn to get help.
And the other, he said, is pride.
“ ‘I don’t want my neighbor to know I need a basket of food,’ ” Masterson said, parroting the thoughts of some struggling residents.
“There’s no shame in it. Everybody needs help sometimes,” he said. “Even the president needs Congress to get bills passed.”
County Commissioners President Pamela Tokar-Ickes told the audience that hunger is seen daily by teachers in the schools and workers at senior centers. Yet she was optimistic.
“We can create our own food revolution one person at a time,” she said.
The bottom line, Redding said, is that individual compassion is the foundation for reversing hunger in Cambria and Somerset counties, as well as nationwide.
“You don’t have a charitable food system without first having a food system that’s charitable,” he said to murmurs of agreement.
Cynthia Moore of the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank – which distributes food to Cambria and Somerset counties – noted that both counties have double-digit poverty rates.
Cambria’s rate is 12.5 percent and Somerset’s is 12.1 percent.
But she cited progress, including a program to collect food at the Somerset Walmart.
Between December and the end of March, she said, 10,600 pounds of foodstuffs were collected.
The half-day session at the Somerset Church of the Brethren was a collaborative effort.
Sponsors were the Greater Pittsburgh Food Bank, the Somerset Ministerium, Somerset County commissioners and the Community Action Partnership.
Local News
Related Photos
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State Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding (right) addresses the audience Friday during the Somerset County Hunger Summit at the Somerset Church of the Brethren. Todd Berkey
Discussion
Local summit seeks solutions to relieve hunger
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