Over the last six years, hunger and food insecurity in Philadelphia has risen 22 percent in contrast to a decrease across the region and the nation. - Philadelphia Hunger Report 2018, Hunger Free America, Nov. 2018
Philanthropy Network's Food Funders Affinity Group is dismayed by this statistic and in response is sponsoring a series of meetings with food funders, anti-hunger/food security direct service providers and other stakeholders to discuss what we can collectively do to reverse this trend. The first meeting was held on November 13th to review the data on food insecurity and poverty, consider the root and contributing factors, review current funding strategies, and identify gaps.
The second meeting will be held on February 13, 2020 to hear from the organizations and community members working to improve food security and determine how we can all work together to truly improve food security in Philadelphia.
Click HERE for meeting resources and articles.
Quote that was shared at the November 13, 2019 meeting:
"One day, I read this quote that said, “You can only pull people out of the river for so long until you have to look upriver to find out who’s pushing them in.” So that is when I added “activist” to my résumé.
Philanthropy is one thing, and pulling people out of the water is one thing, but at some point we have to ask ourselves, what are the institutions and powers that are causing all of these children to not be able to have their heat turned on? What are the institutions that are causing all of these dads to be pulled out to jail for the most minor infractions? What are the institutions and powers-that-be that are causing so many freaking people to be addicted to opioids?
We have to go upriver. We’re going to do and/both, all the time. I just want to spend the rest of my life pulling people out of the river and also creating a living hell for the people that are pushing them in."
- Glennon Doyle, Writer/Philanthropist (quote was from Glennon Doyle and Abby Wambach interview — Un-becoming (On Being with Krista Tippett))